標普宣佈委內瑞拉正式違約

Standard & Poor’s has become the first rating agency to say that Venezuela is officially in default following Caracas’s failure to make two interest payments.

在委內瑞拉政府未能支付兩筆債務的利息後，標準普爾(Standard & Poor's)成爲首家宣佈委內瑞拉正式違約的評級機構。

S&P said on Tuesday that Venezuela had failed to make $200 million in coupon payments for global bonds due in 2019 and 2024 within the 30-calendar-day grace period.

標普週二表示，委內瑞拉未能在30個日曆日的寬限期內償還2019年和2024年到期的全球債券的2億美元票息。

As a result, the rating agency said it had downgraded the issue ratings on those bonds to D from CC and cut the country’s long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating to selective default, or SD, from CC.

標普表示，它已因此把這些債券的發行評級從CC級下調至D級，並將委內瑞拉的長期外幣主權信用評級從CC級下調至SD級（即Selective Default，選擇性違約）。

“Our CreditWatch negative reflects our opinion that there is a one-in-two chance that Venezuela could default again within the next three months,” S&P said.

“我們的負面觀察決定反映出，我們認爲委內瑞拉在未來3個月內有一半的可能性再次違約，”標普說。

Venezuela’s Socialist government is under pressure after investors left a Caracas meeting on Monday none the wiser about how the country plans to avoid a looming $60bn bond default and Europe imposed sanctions on the country for human rights abuses.

委內瑞拉統一社會主義黨政府現在承受着很大壓力。週一，投資者從該國首都加拉加斯的一次會議上離開時，仍不清楚該國打算如何避免一場即將到來的600億美元債券違約，此外歐洲還以該國踐踏人權爲由對該國實施了制裁。