Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla will pay Christmas bonuses due to public employees as the commonwealth contemplates defaulting on bond payments at the start of the year, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The governor, who won’t seek re-election when his term expires in January 2017, will begin paying about $120 million that workers were owed as of Dec.
Puerto Rico in Distress
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The battle over whether Puerto Rico should be granted bankruptcy protections centers on putting tens of billions of dollars at risk from investors around the country.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said yesterday that it is "essential" that Puerto Rico be given access to a mechanism to restructure its debt, calling on Congress to "act quickly" to address the island's $70 billion debt crisis, Reuters reported.
Puerto Rico will default on debt payments in January or May, Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla said, as Congress failed to provide the Caribbean island with the help it was seeking to cope with an escalating debt crisis, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The lapse will probably come on Jan. 1, when its next bond payments are due, Garcia Padilla said yesterday.