Lebanon Default and Middle Eastern News: Latest on Bonds - Bloomberg:
Lebanon’s banking lobby made a last-ditch appeal to the government to avoid a debt default and instead offer a swap into new notes for all bondholders.
In the clutches of its worst financial crisis in decades, Lebanon is running out of time to decide how to handle a debt burden that economists say is no longer sustainable. It faces a choice of repaying more than $1.2 billion of Eurobonds due March 9 or restructuring liabilities to preserve dwindling foreign-exchange reserves.
The best solution is to repay the debt through a swap for new securities and embark on immediate reforms to clean up public finances and restore the confidence of diaspora investors, according to Salim Sfeir, head of the Association of Banks in Lebanon. Foreign bondholders could be willing to agree to such an exchange if the country can convince them of acting in good faith to carry out reforms and implement a credible plan, he said.
Lebanon’s banking lobby made a last-ditch appeal to the government to avoid a debt default and instead offer a swap into new notes for all bondholders.
In the clutches of its worst financial crisis in decades, Lebanon is running out of time to decide how to handle a debt burden that economists say is no longer sustainable. It faces a choice of repaying more than $1.2 billion of Eurobonds due March 9 or restructuring liabilities to preserve dwindling foreign-exchange reserves.
The best solution is to repay the debt through a swap for new securities and embark on immediate reforms to clean up public finances and restore the confidence of diaspora investors, according to Salim Sfeir, head of the Association of Banks in Lebanon. Foreign bondholders could be willing to agree to such an exchange if the country can convince them of acting in good faith to carry out reforms and implement a credible plan, he said.
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