LA PAZ, JUN 19 (AFP/APP/DNA):Bolivia, battling an economic crisis that has plunged it into social unrest, risks defaulting on its loan payments if it does not obtain new foreign financing, President Luis Arce told AFP on Wednesday.
“We are trying not to default. We have every intention of paying our debt, but if we don’t have the resources?” the embattled leader said in an interview in his office in La Paz.
Bolivia’s external debt stands at $13.3 billion.
Its main creditors are the Inter-American Development Bank, the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), the World Bank, and China.
Arce has been unable to convince parliament to approve new loans to the tune of $1.8 billion from multilateral agencies.
The country needs $2.6 billion by December for fuel imports and external debt payments.
“We are making the worst deal as a country. Because when one has external debt, you pay the principal and interest to the creditor, and that outflow of dollars is compensated by the inflow of new disbursements from new debts, which is not happening,” said the president.
Arce has dismissed calls for him to stand down over the crisis marked by a dire shortage of foreign currency, fuel and other basics.
But he has said he will not seek reelection in August.
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