Ethiopia defaulted on Eurobonds 2024 for $1 billion, failing to pay a coupon of $33 million.
Reuters reports this.
The payment was due on December 11, but the country had a two-week grace period that ended on Friday. Bondholders have not received their money, making Ethiopia the third African country (after Zambia and Ghana) to default in the past three years, agency sources said.
At the beginning of 2021, Ethiopia asked creditors for debt relief. Negotiations were delayed by the domestic war, but in November 2023 official creditors, notably China, agreed to a halt in debt service. Parallel negotiations with private creditors - pension funds and bondholders - were unsuccessful.
On December 15, the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance announced that it would be forced to default on Eurobonds because payment of the coupon would jeopardize negotiations with official creditors.
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