Puerto Rico in Distress

ABI Analysis

Earthquakes that rocked Puerto Rico in January and the coronavirus pandemic cost the island $1.1 billion in estimated revenue as Governor Wanda Vazquez closed almost all non-essential activity to help stop the spread of the virus, Bloomberg News reported.

Five members of U.S. Congress from New York said on Wednesday that several investment firms involved in Puerto Rico’s ongoing bankruptcy may have engaged in insider trading and urged the state attorney general to investigate, Reuters reported.

As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps the globe, shutting businesses, killing the vulnerable and crippling economies, Puerto Rico has taken one of the country’s hardest economic hits, the New York Times reported. Gov. Wanda Vázquez was the first governor in the nation to order businesses to close and people to stay home.

Puerto Rico’s bankrupt public power utility signed a long-term deal to outsource the business of delivering electricity, making an expensive bet that private operators can curb the high costs and service problems that have long plagued consumers, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The U.S.