Ukraine is negotiating with creditors over Eurobond debt worth about $20 billion. In case of unsuccessful completion of negotiations before August 1, the country theoretically faces default.
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Default occurs when a government fails to pay debts promptly and in full and may be technical or total. However, People's Deputy Daniil Getmantsev believes that a default is unlikely, since neither creditors nor debtors are interested in it, so an agreement will be reached.
“Word and Deed” graphically demonstrates which countries were in default states and when it happened was.
Default in Ukraine
Ukraine has already been on the verge of default several times – in 1998, 2000, 2015 and 2022. In August 1998, Russia declared a technical default on the main types of government debt obligations (the amount of overdue debt exceeded 72.7 billion dollars). After this, a crisis erupted in the country: the ruble was devalued, the standard of living of the population fell sharply, and the banking system was paralyzed. But Ukraine then managed to avoid the worst-case scenario.
In 2015, after the start of Russian aggression, Ukraine managed to avoid default by agreeing on debt restructuring.
In August 2022, Ukraine agreed on a two-year deferment of servicing debt on direct and state-guaranteed Eurobonds.
Which countries experienced default events
Over the past 25 years, dozens of countries have experienced default events. For example, Argentina declared default three times between 2000 and 2020; there were many more of them in the country’s history. In 2024, default was avoided thanks to successful negotiations on debt restructuring.
South American countries such as Ecuador (1999, 2008, 2020 and 2023), Uruguay (2003), Venezuela (2016) experienced default events. Thus, Ecuador declared a default on external debts in 1999 and 2008.
Of the North American countries, the Dominican Republic (2005), Nicaragua (2003, 2008), Barbados (2018) faced default and default events.< /p>
Many African countries had problems with debt repayments: Mozambique (2016, 2017 and 2023), Republic of the Congo (2017), Ethiopia (2023), Cameroon (2023), Niger (2023), Ghana (2022) and others.
Russia and Belarus committed a technical default on their external debt in 2022. Greece was twice on the brink of default in 2012 due to a long, severe economic crisis.
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