Dominican Republic pays most of US$4.1B oil debt

Santo Domingo.- Dominican Republic Finance minister Simon Lizardo on Thursday said the government paid off nearly all of a US$4.1 billion oil debt to Venezuela accumulated since 2005, with funds raised through a bond sale last week.

The government used US$1.93 billion to pay off 98 percent of its debt to Venezuela at a discount of more than 50 percent, the official told reporters in a National Palace press conference.

The deal, the official said, concluded on Jan. 27, and the Administration headed by Danilo Medina will reduce the country’s debt owed to Venezuela

The Dominican Republic had accumulated the debt under preferential financing terms afforded to it as a member of Venezuela’s Petrocaribe energy program, enacted by the late former president Hugo Chavez.