Ecuador has $650 million ready to repay its Global 2015 bonds in full over the next few days, Finance Minister Fausto Herrera said on Thursday, despite the Opec member's squeezed finances due to the steep slump in global oil prices. That would be the first time Ecuador pays principal on a maturing global issue and would come despite its current struggles to pay local creditors in various sectors.
"The funds are already put aside for the payment of the Global 2015 papers, and payment will be carried out up to the December 15 deadline," Herrera told reporters. President Rafael Correa's leftist government defaulted on $3.2 billion of sovereign bonds in 2008 but returned to markets in mid-2014 with a new $2 billion bond sale.