Payment Seen Unlikely on $1.1 Billion in Maturing Venezuela Bonds

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro holds a bank note of the new Venezuela's currency Bolivar Soberano (Sovereign Bolivar) as he speaks during a meeting with ministers at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela July 25, 2018. Miraflores Palace/Reuters

NEW YORK/CARACAS—Venezuela faces payments of $1.1 billion in interest and principal on two bonds maturing on Aug. 15, but investors expect the cash-strapped nation to continue its pattern of no payments.

The government of President Nicolas Maduro has halted almost all foreign debt payments, leaving Venezuela, which has a debt load of around $60 billion in direct and subsidiary foreign bonds, in default.