Economies in transition: reverberation of the russian financial shock

On 17 August 1998, the Government of the Russian Federation, confronted by climbing borrowing costs, shrinking tax revenues, debt-servicing obligations that rose to almost 50 per cent of budget receipts, as well as by a large loss of foreign-exchange reserves incurred in defending the currency, announced it would restructure its rouble-denominated debt maturing before the end of 1999. It also imposed a unilateral 90-day moratorium on the repayment of external debt by Russian companies and allowed the rouble to depreciate. This was despite having received approval for a package assembled by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of $22.6 billion in mid-July.

Sustainable Development Goals:

Decent Work and Economic Growth