Puerto Rico’s Bonds Overshadow Pension Fund Poised to Go Broke
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Island’s largest retirement system has 0.7% funding ratio
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It may be depleted of assets by 2020, adding to budget strain
Puerto Rico’s $72 billion debt burden overshadows another financial threat to the Caribbean island: a government workers pension fund that’s set to go broke in five years.
As Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla prepares to push for bondholders to renegotiate debts he says the commonwealth can’t afford, he’s also contending with an estimated $30 billion shortfall in the Employees Retirement System. The pension, which covers 119,975 employees, as of June 2014 had just 0.7 percent of the assets needed to pay all the benefits that had been promised, a level unheard of among U.S. states…
Puerto Rico’s Bonds Overshadow Pension Fund Poised to Go Broke