Washington, Jun 29 (EFE).– The U.S. government is not planning a federal bailout for Puerto Rico although the island is having severe financial problems and says its debt is unpayable, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday.

“There’s no one in the administration or in D.C. that’s contemplating a federal bailout of Puerto Rico,” Earnest said at his daily press conference.

Puerto Rico’s governor had warned that the U.S. commonwealth cannot pay its $72 billion public debt, saying that it was time to get the island out of the “death spiral” involving its public finances.

Earnest, however, said that the U.S. government will try to work with the Puerto Rican government to “identify” possible federal resources that might help alleviate the island’s complicated financial crisis.

“We do remain committed to working with Puerto Rico and their leaders as they address the serious challenges,” he added.

Earnest said that the administration of President Barack Obama had created a special interdepartmental commission to deal with these problems in a way similar to what occurred when Detroit found itself forced to suspend its debt payments in 2013.

There was no federal bailout for Detroit, Earnest said, regarding the city’s suspension of payments, the largest such move in U.S. history valued at about $20 billion.

In his announcement about restructuring the island’s debt, Garcia Padilla said that his government “would probably seek significant concessions from as many as all of the island’s creditors,” which could include “deferring some debt payments for as long as five years or extending the timetable for repayment.”

“My administration is doing everything not to default, but we have to make the economy grow. If not, we will be in a death spiral,” Garcia Padilla told the daily, which recalled that the island, with its population of 3.6 million, accumulates more debt than any state in the country. EFE