Closing post
Time to wrap up. Here are today’s stories, first on the shock sackings at P&O Ferries:
Today’s UK interest rate rise:
The UK’s economic challenges:
The consequences of the Russia-Ukraine war:
And in other news:
Goodnight. GW
Updated
There are hopes tonight that Russia might avoid a default on the $117m interest payments that were due yesterday.
Two market sources have told Reuters that some creditors have received payment, in dollars, on those Russian bond coupons.
There had been concerns that Moscow wouldn’t have been able, or willing, to tap its foreign exchanges reserves due to the sanctions imposed by the West.
Reuters has the details:
Russia said earlier it had sent funds to cover $117 million in coupon payments on two dollar-denominated sovereign bonds.
The payments, due on March 16 but with a 30-day grace period, were seen as the first test of whether Moscow will meet its debt obligations after Western sanctions hobbled its financial dealings.
“The coupon was paid, against my expectations, and in dollars,” one person said. Another person said the money had been received by a client who was a bondholder.
Some other creditors said they had yet to receive their funds but were optimistic they were on the way, noting they had received payments on hard currency bonds from a raft of state-run and private Russian companies in recent days.
Earlier, another source told Reuters that JPMorgan, Russia’s correspondent bank, had processed the cash sent by the government and credited it to the paying agent Citi. It would be checked and then distributed to various bondholders, the source said.
Russia says it has made payments due on two bonds, but some creditors say the funds haven't been received, leaving it unclear whether the country faces its first default on international debt in more than a century https://t.co/JC7Beb2qCu pic.twitter.com/Ziox84BeFm
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 17, 2022
