委内瑞拉对中国违约出人意料

Last month Ricardo Hausmann, a normally mild Harvard academic, set off the equivalent of a financial bomb. The economist suggested that Venezuela had already defaulted on many of its suppliers, its oil service contractors, and its citizens. So who or what might come next?

上个月，通常温和的哈佛(Harvard)学者里卡多•豪斯曼(Ricardo Hausmann)不啻引爆了一枚金融炸弹。这位经济学家表示，委内瑞拉已对其许多供应商、石油服务合同商以及国民违约了。那么，接下来可能对谁或者哪个领域违约呢？

When Hausmann suggested Wall Street, the market reaction was huge. Indeed Venezuelan bonds, undercut by the falling oil price, have been dropping ever since. Yet it turns out that Venezuela’s latest default has been, in fact, to China. Given that Beijing is one of Caracas’ closest allies, this is surprising. It is also bullish for Wall Street.

豪斯曼对华尔街(Wall Street)的提醒，引起了市场的巨大反响。实际上，因油价下跌而被压低的委内瑞拉债券，从那时起价格一直在下跌。但事实证明，委内瑞拉最新的违约对象其实是中国。鉴于中国是委内瑞拉的最亲密盟国之一，此事颇令人惊讶。这也利好华尔街。

Venezuela has long been a major recipient of Chinese loans, accounting for half of Beijing’s lending to the region. Since 2006, it has taken on $50bn of oil-backed debt. Last year, Rafael Ramirez, the former head of state-oil company PdvSA, revealed that these payments-in kind absorbed over half of Venezuela’s 640,000 barrels per day of oil exports to China. But no more, it seems.

长期以来，委内瑞拉一直是获得中国贷款的大户，占到中国对拉美贷款总量的二分之一。自2006年以来，该国接受了500亿美元石油支持贷款。去年国有石油公司——委内瑞拉国家石油公司(PDVSA)的前掌舵人拉斐尔•拉米雷斯(Rafael Ramirez)透露，这种以石油偿还贷款的方式占该国每日64万桶对华石油出口的逾一半。但是，看来以后不会这样了。

Last week, Venezuela’s national gazette made it official that Caracas no longer needed to export 330,000 barrels bpd to China to pay for its loans. Instead, according to BancTrust, a boutique investment bank, PdVSA can now send as much or as little oil to Beijing as it wants. Furthermore, the terms of the loans have been extended beyond their current three years, perhaps indefinitely. China’s Ministry of Commerce has since confirmed the changes, pointing out they were made at Venezuela’s request.

上周，委内瑞拉全国性报纸公开称，该国不再需要每日向中国出口33万桶石油以偿还贷款。相反，小型投行BancTrust表示，PDVSA现在向中国出口石油量的多少，完全由其自己决定。另外，贷款期限已在当前的3年基础上延长，可能是无限期的延长。中国商务部后来已证实了这一变动，并指出这是应委内瑞拉的要求而做出的。

This de facto debt rescheduling tells us several important things. First, it is another confirmation of Venezuela’s economic and financial distress. To service its Chinese debts at lower oil prices, Venezuela would have had to export comparably more oil. But the country cannot increase oil output quickly. Nor does it have the financial wherewithal to service its Chinese debts in cash instead; foreign reserves are already under pressure. So something else had to be done.

这一实际上的债务延期告诉我们几个重要事实。第一，这再次证实了委内瑞拉的经济与金融困局。要在更低油价下偿还中国债务，委内瑞拉将不得不出口更多石油。但该国无法迅速提高石油产量，同样也没有财力以现金偿还中国债务。该国外汇储备已在承压。所以必须采取其他措施。

Second, China apparently agreed to the debt rescheduling perhaps because its banks believed in taking the long view. After all, Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves – so one day it will pay. But was the rescheduling China’s preferred choice? As the old saying goes: if you owe the bank $5, you have a problem, but if you owe the bank $5m, the bank has a problem. Either way, China is unlikely to be a source of fresh finance for Venezuela from now on.

第二，中国看来同意了债务延期，可能是因为中国的银行认为应该放眼长远。委内瑞拉毕竟拥有世界最大的石油储量，所以总有一天它将偿还债务。但债务延期是中国的首选吗？正如古谚所说：如果你欠银行5美元，那么你将有麻烦，但如果你欠银行500万美元，那么银行将有麻烦。不管哪种情况，从现在开始，中国都不可能成为委内瑞拉获得新融资的来源国了。

Lastly, Venezuela now has 330,000 bpd of oil – equivalent to almost $25m a day or $9bn a year — that it can use for other ends. One use might be to ease the import crunch that has resulted in shortages of so many basic goods, such as toilet paper. Another might be to divert resources to meet international bond payments. Either way, Venezuela is struggling and so far Wall Street is still being paid. But for how much longer?

最后，委内瑞拉现在有每日33万桶的石油——折合价格接近每日2500万美元、每年90亿美元——可用到其他用途了。可能用途之一是缓解进口资金紧张，后者已导致诸如卫生纸等众多基本商品的短缺。另外可以转作偿还国际债券之用。不管哪种情况，委内瑞拉都在拼命挣扎。迄今华尔街仍收到该国的还款，但这种状况还能延续多久呢？