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Russia's National Settlement Depository (NSD) on Friday successfully paid coupons in foreign currency on two Eurobonds, an NSD representative told Reuters, a move that could mean Russia may have again averted a default, Reuters reported. Russia is on the cusp of a unique kind of debt crisis which investors say would be a first time a major emerging market economy is pushed into a bond default by geopolitics, rather than empty coffers. The NSD said that it paid foreign currency in coupon payouts on Eurobonds maturing in 2026 and 2036, both of which were due on May 27.

Russia needs huge financial resources for its military operation in Ukraine, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Friday, putting the amount of budget stimulus for the economy at 8 trillion roubles ($120 billion), Reuters reported. Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, which prompted the West to impose sanctions against Moscow that have already fanned inflation to near 18% and pushed the country to the brink of recession. "Money, huge resources are needed for the special operation," Siluanov said in a lecture at a Moscow financial university.

Sri Lanka’s prime minister said on Thursday that he will quickly prepare an economic reform program and seek approval from the International Monetary Fund — because global inflation and the financial impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on other countries could limit their ability to help the island nation, the Associated Press reported. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that officials have reached agreement on basic reforms concepts with the IMF and that he plans to have the economic reform program ready within two weeks.

Bulgaria's government on Friday approved a plan to join the euro zone as of Jan. 1, 2024, amid concerns within the ruling coalition over the lack of detailed analysis on the impact of the move, Reuters reported. Political uncertainty and three elections last year delayed the plan, drafted after Bulgaria was admitted together with Croatia to the ERM-2 mechanism, a mandatory stage for joining the euro in 2020. The European Union's poorest member, which already pegs its lev currency to the euro, has pledged to adopt the single currency at its current fixed rate in 2024.

Pakistan faces $6.4 billion in dollar debt due over the next three years as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s new government is trying to meet bailout terms set by the International Monetary Fund, Bloomberg News reported. The country, under pressure to keep its economy afloat and avert a sovereign default, needs about $3.16 billion to pay dollar bonds and loans this year, $1.52 billion next year and $1.71 billion in 2024, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

A leading international credit ratings agency warned Friday that the results of this month’s parliamentary elections in Lebanon make it difficult for any coalition to have a governing majority, potentially complicating implementation of reforms, the Associated Press reported. Shortly after the warning from Fitch Ratings, the Lebanese pound briefly hit new lows against the dollar, causing chaos in markets around the country. Lebanon is in the grips of the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history.

Russia could already be in default on some of its foreign currency debts, according to bondholders that claim they are still owed a small interest payment that Moscow didn’t send to them earlier this spring, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. A change in U.S. sanctions on Wednesday is expected to cut off Russia’s ability to stay current on its dollar-denominated sovereign debt, which it has managed to continue servicing since the invasion of Ukraine began.

Russia’s central bank delivered its third interest-rate reduction in just over a month and said borrowing costs can fall further still, halting a rally in the ruble as it unwinds the financial defenses in place since the invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg News reported. The Bank of Russia lowered its benchmark to 11% from 14% on Thursday at an extraordinary meeting it announced only a day earlier. All 23 economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicted a reduction, with most forecasting a cut of two percentage points.

Russian bailiffs have seized more than 7.7 billion roubles ($123.2 million) from Alphabet's Google that the U.S. tech giant had been ordered to pay as part of a fine on its turnover, Interfax news agency reported on Thursday. Google's Russian subsidiary last week said it planned to file for bankruptcy after authorities seized its bank account, making it impossible to pay staff and vendors, but free services including search and YouTube will continue operating. Read more.

The British government said it would use a windfall profits tax on oil and gas companies to help raise funds for direct payments to households, totaling about 15 billion pounds (about $19 billion), to ease the country’s cost-of-living crisis, the New York Times reported. Rishi Sunak, the chancellor of the Exchequer, announced the measures on Thursday as the government has come under increasingly intense pressure to help households with rapidly rising inflation and energy bills. Mr.