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The Puerto Rican debt crisis is an ongoing financial crisis related to the amount of debt owed by the government of Puerto Rico. The island has more than $70 billion USD of outstanding debt, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of about 68%.〕}} In February 2014, various American credit rating agencies downgraded the government's debt to non-investment grade. The crisis has caused Puerto Rico's government to adopt policies that will ideally reduce costs drastically, increase revenues, and spark economic growth so that it can better fund its debt obligations. Puerto Rico's economy has been described as precarious, weak, and fragile, and aggravated by social distrust and unpleasantness. On August 3, 2015, Puerto Rico defaulted on a $58 million bond payment to the Public Financing Corporation, a subsidiary of the Government Development Bank, while other financial obligations were met. ==Background== In the beginning of the 16th century, the Spaniards colonized Puerto Rico and spread the Catholic faith through indigenous conversions. In 1898, Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States, at the end of the Spanish–American War. Prior to that, the people of Puerto Rico enjoyed Spanish citizenship; after Puerto Rico was no longer part of Spain, the people of Puerto Rico effectively lacked citizenship from a sovereign country after it was ceded: the people of Puerto Rico were neither Puerto Rican citizens, nor American citizens, nor Spanish citizens. Because of this, on April 12, 1900, the U.S. Congress enacted the Foraker Act, establishing Puerto Rican citizenship for people born in Puerto Rico. Four years later, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed Puerto Rican citizenship in 1904 by its ruling on ''Gonzales v. Williams'' which denied that Puerto Ricans were United States citizens and labeled them as non-citizen US nationals. This ruling effectively restricted Puerto Ricans from being conscripted to US military service. Because of this and other local and mainland interests, Congress enacted the Jones–Shafroth Act on March 2, 1917, on the brink of World War I. This act granted American citizenship to the people of Puerto Rico, which allowed them to be drafted into military service. Among the rights granted through the legislation, the Jones-Shaforth Act exempted interest payments from bonds issued by the government of Puerto Rico and its subdivisions from federal, state, and local income taxes (so called "triple tax exemption") regardless of where the bond holder resides. This right made Puerto Rican bonds attractive to municipal investors.〕}} This advantage strives from the restriction typically imposed by municipal bonds enjoying triple tax exemption where such exemptions solely apply for bond holders that reside in the state or municipal subdivision that issues them. This factor led Puerto Rico to issue bonds that were always attractive to municipal investors, regardless of Puerto Rico's account balances.〕}} Puerto Rico thus began to issue debt to balance its budget, a practice repeated for four decades since 1973. The island also began to issue debt to repay older debt, as well as refinancing older debt possessing low interest rates with debt possessing higher interest rates. It was not until Puerto Rico enlarged its outstanding debt to $71 billion USD —an amount approximately equal to 68% of Puerto Rico's gross domestic product (GDP)—that Puerto Rican bonds were downgraded to non-investment grade (better known as "junk status" or speculative grade) by three bond credit rating agencies between February 4–11, 2014. This downgrade triggered bond acceleration clauses that required Puerto Rico to repay certain debt instruments within months rather than years. Investors were concerned that Puerto Rico would eventually default on its debt.〕}} Such default would reduce Puerto Rico's ability to issue bonds in the future. Puerto Rico currently requires as it is unable to maintain its current operations unless it takes drastic measures that may lead to civil unrest; as it already has. These events, along with a series of governmental financial deficits and a recession, have led to Puerto Rico's current debt crisis while the current debt crisis has been ongoing with Greece simultaneously. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Puerto Rican government-debt crisis」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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