What follows is Sergio Marxuach’s testimony before the United States’ Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday, September 29th, 2015. The Committee hearing addressed: “Financial and Economic Challenges in Puerto Rico”.
Good morning, Chairman Hatch, Ranking Member Wyden, and Members of the United States Senate Committee on Finance. For the record, my name is Sergio Marxuach and I am the Policy Director at the Center for a New Economy, Puerto Rico’s only, not-forprofit, independent, and non-partisan think tank. I thank you for the opportunity to appear today before this Committee to discuss Puerto Rico’s financial and economic challenges.
Puerto Rico, usually invisible to the U.S. media, has been in the news recently, especially since the governor announced that the island’s public debt of $72 billion, equivalent to 103% of its GNP, was “unpayable” and needs to be restructured.