Belize has threatened to withhold a coupon payment due on a $547m bond this month, which could plunge the Central American country into formal default and casts a cloud over restructuring talks with creditors, the Financial Times reported. The bond maturing in 2029 is a product of a previous debt restructuring in 2006 and represents roughly half of Belize’s total public debt, according to the government. “We simply cannot afford this coupon payment given the financing shortfalls and other challenges we face,” Dean Barrow, Belize’s prime minister, said.