LONDON, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Suriname said on Thursday it wanted to make use of a 30-day grace period on its dollar-bond coupon payments coming due on Oct. 26 to engage with creditors to tackle its debt sustainability issues.
Indicating that it might not pay the coupon due on Monday, the government said in a statement it had invited all its commercial creditors to an investor presentation on Oct. 30.
"Public debt has risen to historical levels and borrowing continued even as severe macroeconomic and financial imbalances were building up," the government of the South American nation said.
It added that it could not refinance at affordable market prices and servicing its debt conflicted with dealing with the social fallout from the ongoing crisis.
The government said it had developed an economic reform programme which included unifying exchange rates and raising fuel taxes, and was working with the International Monetary Fund to secure financial assistance.
"At the investor presentation, further details of Suriname’s current financial and economic position will be disclosed and the next steps in the process to restoring public debt sustainability will be discussed," the statement said.
The coupon payment was due on a $550 million dollar-denominated bond maturing in 2026, which last traded at just over 55 cents in the dollar. The issue is down more than 5 cents since the start of the week.
The country's total foreign debt stands at around $4 billion, with debt service absorbing large amounts of government income.
President Chan Santokhi said earlier on in October that his government would prioritise a rescheduling and restructuring of two loans from investment bank Oppenheimer amounting to $125 million. (Reporting by Karin Strohecker, editing by Rodrigo Campos and Andrew Heavens)
