African countries may get debt relief from China more easily than private creditors amid a global push to blunt the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic on poor nations, a Johns Hopkins University study shows, Bloomberg News reported. China has written off $3.4 billion and restructured or refinanced about $15 billion of debt in Africa over the past decade without slapping penalties or seizing assets from borrowers, it said.

South Africa’s state-owned agricultural lender Land Bank is close to finalising a liquidity and debt restructuring plan after it missed loan repayments this year and had its credit rating cut, it said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. A statement from the company said that the plan under discussion with lenders and the National Treasury is intended to raise a 3 billion rand ($174 million) liquidity facility from lenders and extend terms of all debt maturing in the next 12 months.

Developed nations are considering financial support for a plan to relieve African countries of debt payments without triggering default, according to the United Nations committee steering the initiative, Bloomberg News reported. The debt-swap deal would channel payments due this year on international bonds back to the African nations, helping them fight the coronavirus and its economic impact.

The South African government would need to find at least 10 billion rand ($580 million) in new bailout funds if it wants to rescue South African Airways (SAA) with most of its routes intact, a long-delayed rescue plan showed, Reuters reported. State-owned SAA’s longstanding frailties have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has pushed even previously profitable airlines into financial distress. SAA suspended commercial passenger flights in March, when the government imposed one of Africa’s strictest coronavirus lockdowns.

South Africa made it clear it wasn’t seeking any type of debt suspension to fight the coronavirus pandemic, with such measures likely hurting more than they would help due to the high domestic ownership of securities, BloombergQuint reported. “There are a few countries, such as Egypt and South Africa, that aren’t among those” seeking to be involved in debt standstill talks being coordinated by the Institute of International Finance, special envoy Trevor Manuel said in response to emailed questions.

Air Namibia grounded all international flights not already wiped out by the coronavirus after the country’s president, Hage Geingob, said the state carrier should be liquidated, Bloomberg News reported.

Emerging economies have raised more than $83bn through the international bond market since the beginning of April, just weeks after a push by the G20 to offer many poorer nations debt relief, the Financial Times reported. Data collated by the Institute of International Finance, an industry association, show that developing economies are financing their coronavirus-driven deficits by accessing the global financial markets, rather than by attempting to restructure their existing borrowings.

Emerging-market economies are grappling with a new dilemma as they begin the slow journey to recovery: how to rescue state-owned businesses without also triggering a debt crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Cash-strapped governments in Indonesia, India, South Africa and elsewhere are being pressured to bail out national airlines, energy utilities and other state businesses brought to their knees by virus-related travel restrictions, collapsing demand and plunging oil prices.

Ratings agency Moody’s has downgraded South Africa’s Land Bank deeper into subinvestment grade after the state company missed another debt interest payment due to liquidity challenges, Reuters reported. The Land and Agricultural Development Bank of South Africa (Land Bank), the country’s largest agricultural-focussed lender, defaulted on the loans totalling 50 billion rand ($3.01 billion in April. And in a notice on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on June 1 Land Banki said it was not in a position to meet interest payments of nearly 120 million rand.

East African finance ministers will have to strike a balance between spending to rebuild economies battered by the coronavirus scourge and burdening their already heavily indebted nations with more loans when they present 2020-21 spending plans, Bloomberg News reported. Foreign exchange from mining and agricultural exports, tourists and remittances have dropped precipitously, and revenue from domestic activity is drying up, forcing governments in the region with some of the world’s fastest-growing economies to borrow.