The cost of insuring Russia’s government debt surged to signal a record 99% chance of default within the year after its Finance Ministry paid some of its dollar bonds with rubles.
Credit-default swaps insuring $10 million of the country’s notes for one year were quoted at about $7.3 million upfront and $100,000 annually on Wednesday, according to ICE Data Services’ prices on Bloomberg. That’s up from about $5 million in advance last week, the data show. ICE is the main clearing house for European CDS.
