Puerto Rico’s government formally exited bankruptcy Tuesday, completing the largest public debt restructuring in U.S. history.
Highlights
- Puerto Rico’s government will resume payments to bondholders for the first time in several years.
- Puerto Rico accumulated more than $70 billion in public debt through decades of corruption, mismanagement and excessive borrowing.
- The bankruptcy led to widely criticized austerity measures on an island that paid some $1 billion in fees to consultants and lawyers.
- The island is still trying to recover from the hurricane as well as a series of powerful earthquakes that struck its southern region starting in late 2019.
- The exit was a priority for the board and Natalie Jaresko, executive director of the federal control board that oversees Puerto Rico’s finances, has not been named yet.