The Finance Ministry has announced that the government has made an additional payment for outstanding coupons on Thursday, March 23, 2023.

The Ministry in a release dated March 24, noted that “the payments cover coupons on both the 2-year note that matured on February 20, 2023, and the 20-year note due on February 20, 2023.”

“Following the Press Release issued by the Ministry of Finance dated Tuesday March 14, 2023, government is pleased to announce that additional coupon payments have been made on Thursday March 23, 2023,” parts of the release indicated.

It however noted that “payments on the principal of the 2-year note maturing on February 23, 2023; as well as payments on subsequent maturities, will be communicated in due course.”

“The Ministry of Finance once again takes this opportunity to thank all stakeholders for their patience and co-operation, as government continues to work towards the restoration of macro-economic stability,” the statement added.

It would be recalled that government on March 13, 2023 started processes to settle payments on outstanding bonds for the payments to begin on March 14, 2023.

This came on the backdrop of the Coalition of Individual Bondholders issuing a 48-hour ultimatum for the government to honour the bonds, just as the Pensioner bondholders also said they were worried over government’s silence in spite of the various promises to honour the payments.

They were considering revisiting their picketing to press home their demands after the expiration of the deadline by the government to honour its debt obligation.