Bolivia’s central bank has repaid USD 772 mln this year towards external debt, accounting for 53% of the year’s scheduled debt service payments, including a USD 54 mln payment on bonds maturing in 2023, with an additional USD 189 mln payment set in August. According to the finance ministry, despite an earlier shortage, dollar liquidity in Bolivia’s private banks is normalizing. Bolivia’s bonds, however, reflect a high default risk and are ranked at 917 bps on JPMorgan’s EMBI index as of July 25th, even though there was a decline from 2000 bps following the approval of gold purchases for reserves. A 917 bps indicates that the interest rate on Bolivia’s government bonds is more than nine pp higher than that of US bonds.