S&P announced default to the Republic of Congo

The Republic of Congo is in default on its international debts after missing an interest payment on $478m of bonds due at the end of June, as the oil price collapse claimed another victim.

The yield on the bond, which was issued as part of a restructuring of its London Club debts in 2007, has climbed to 9.5 per cent, according to Bloomberg data. The rating agency didn’t go into why Congo defaulted, but the country depends heavily on its oil exports, and the price of crude has plummeted in recent years. The latest report by the International Monetary Fund – published in September last year – noted that the Republic of Congo “has been hit hard by the oil price shock”. In 2014 oil revenues accounted for almost 70 per cent of the government’s total revenues.