Nicaragua Seeks To Issue Bonds To Recharge Energy Needs

Nicaragua’s government has sent a bill to Congress to approve the issuance of $9 million worth of Treasury bills to help alleviate the country’s energy crisis. The money raised would be used to inject fresh funds into Spanish-owned utility Unión Fenosa to enable it to buy electricity in the Central American energy market. Fenosa controls Nicaragua’s electricity distribution. Power outages have been a common problem since last year but the situation has worsened recently due to technical failures and the rising price of oil. Nicaragua has been struggling to meet its daily electricity needs of 450 MW per day and has been forced to introduce rationing.