The Communist Party returned to power in Moldova in March, and international lenders have made privatization a central demand for them to unlock loans and prevent the country from defaulting on $200 million in foreign debt servicing due this year.
As mentioned above the nation's currency is kept artificially high to help pay for imports, including gas, as well as keeping foreign debt servicing low.
While this was previously a compelling argument for supporting the banking sector, Russia's devaluation and subsequent 90-day moratorium on foreign debt servicing for favored banks will quash any remaining foreign investor interest in Russia for many months.
Local economists say that Mr Roche's estimates of both the current-account deficit and foreign debt-servicing needs are much too high, and that he grossly underestimated foreign direct investment.By most calculations, South Africa is nowhere near the pickle that Thailand or Malaysia were in before their crashes.
In addition, the value of foreign currency bonds which matured in the remainder of 2008 was only $600 million, and foreign currency debt service in 2009 was only $215 million, well within the government's ability to pay.
There is no vulnerable local currency for London traders to attack, no massive foreign debt to service, no I.M.F.
Aside from the violence that turned its cities into ghost towns and cost the lives of as many as 200,000 people, Algeria endured massive unemployment and a colossal foreign debt, the servicing of which ate up three-quarters of export earnings.That debt has now dwindled almost to nothing, as foreign reserves, boosted by a windfall of cash from oil and gas sales, have mounted beyond $120 billion.
But Rosneft, for one, also has big foreign debts to service or redeem.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's foreign debt must be serviced.
But it has a foreign debt it can't service of $62 billion, which means it received huge credits and wasted much of them.
