ECUADOR WILL PAY THE 2015

ECUADOR - In Brief 11 Dec 2015 by Magdalena Barreiro

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President Correa announced that the Republic has allocated the money to make payment of the $650 million par value of Global Bonds 2015 by next December the 15th and of the first payment to OXY of a total of $1061.7 million ruled by the World Bank's international settlements court. The total amount owed to the oil company --included interest payments --sum close to $1.4 billion and should be disbursed within the next 12 months. These payments are especially important to help Ecuador improve its credit reputation when it needs it the most given the financial difficulties expected for year 2016, especially after OPEC decided not to cut crude oil production deepening the downtrend in prices. In addition to the abovementioned payments, the government needs close to $1.2 billion to cover December salaries and Christmas bonuses of public servants. Until two days ago, financing sources were highly uncertain. However, Vice-President Jorge Glass seems to have secured $2.8 billion from China in his recent visit to this country. Disbursements will be made between December 2015 and February 2016 ($1.9 b in December). The Vice-President also announced an ongoing negotiation with Chinese and Korean companies to develop the "Refineria del Pacifico" that requires a total investment of $10,000 million. This would be the second intent from the government to finance this project after the failed negotiation with the Venezuelan government that has cost the country over $1000 million with no results to this date.