>>Russia To Skip Debt Payment
By Jim Heintz
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, Jan. 4, 2001; 9:21 p.m. EST
MOSCOW –– Russia won't make its first-quarter payments this year on
the billions of dollars of debt owed to nations known collectively as the Paris
Club, a government spokesman was quoted as saying Thursday.
But the decision "does not mean and has nothing to do with a declaration of
default," the Interfax news agency quoted Gennady Yezhov, spokesman for
Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin, as saying.
"A decision on the former USSR's debts will be found after an International
Monetary Fund mission comes to Moscow in late January or early
February," he said.
The government information department later said that Russia plans to pay
all the amount shceduled for this year, the news agency ITAR-Tass
reported.
Russia owes about $48 billion, racked up by the Soviet Union, to the Paris
Club countries, a group of industrialized nations that includes the United
States. The debt was defaulted on in the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union
and again in the August 1998 financial crisis when the ruble's value plunged.
But Russia's economy has shown signs of significant growth over the last
year and the reason for the delayed payment was not announced. Yezhov
could not be reached and the ministry said no one else could comment.
Russia owes about $3.5 billion in interest payments on the debt this year,
and the missed first-quarter payment amounts to about $1.5 billion.
The Russian parliament passed a balanced budget for 2001, the country's
first ever, and some analysts speculated that the missed payment reflected
unwillingness to tamper with what was considered a historic achievement.
Russia's total foreign debt, including to the Paris Club, is about $148 billion.
The huge amount is an impediment to the nation's development.
The IMF failed to reach an agreement with Russia last month on new loans.<<
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