WASHINGTON: Puerto Rico’s governor said that the island is unable to pay its approximately $72 billion in debt, a statement likely to send waves through the US economy, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

“The debt is not payable,” Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla told the paper. “There is no other option. I would love to have an easier option. This is not politics, this is math.”

Garcia Padilla and senior staff members told the publication last week during an interview that the island, a US commonwealth, would likely seek concessions from perhaps as many as all of its creditors.

This, the Times reported, could include deferral of some debt payment for up to five years or a lengthened timetable for repayment.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2015

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