NEW YORK: The Venezuelan government and its state-owned oil company PDVSA have officially defaulted on billions of dollars’ worth of bonds, the latest chapter of the country’s deep financial collapse.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, a group of banks and brokers that determines whether an entity like Venezuela has failed to make on-time payments on its debts, voted Thursday to say that Venezuela had defaulted.

The vote will trigger what is known as a ‘credit event’ on securities like credit default swaps, which investors buy as a type of insurance against a potential default. The 15-member group must now decide how it will settle the swaps.

Rating agencies, Fitch and Standard & Poor’s determined this week that Vene­zuela’s government was in default.

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2017