Despite one of the world’s longest and strictest lockdowns, the death toll in Argentina keeps rising. The increase in daily deaths from Covid-19 is the sixth highest in the world. More than 10,000 people have died so far. Argentina’s rate of about 234 deaths per million is still lower than its big neighbours — in Brazil and Chile, that rate exceeds 600 deaths per million — but the economic consequences of its lockdown have been especially dire, the Financial Times reported.

Argentina has defused fears of a messy default after it gained backing from creditors, allowing it to exchange 99% of the bonds involved in a $65 billion restructuring, a deal that could set a precedent for future sovereign crises, Reuters reported. After months of winding and tense negotiations, framed by the coronavirus pandemic, bondholders tendered 93.55% of the eligible bonds in the exchange, Economy Minister Martin Guzman said at a news conference on Monday.

After four months of tense debt talks, multiple pushed deadlines and amendments since an initial low-ball offer in April, bondholders will decide on Friday whether to accept the country’s $65 billion restructuring proposal, Reuters reported. The main three creditor committees holding a large chunk of the bonds backed a deal earlier this month, bolstering confidence that the government will get the required level of support to allow a full deal to go ahead without holdouts.

Argentina’s government formally requested negotiations to begin with the International Monetary Fund on a new program to replace a record $57 billion agreement from 2018 which failed to lift its crisis-prone economy, Bloomberg News reported. Officials called for the beginning of consultations ahead of a program that will address $44 billion in payments owed to the multilateral lender as part of its previous arrangement that was never fully disbursed, according to a letter sent to IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and posted on Twitter on Wednesday.

As serial defaulters Argentina and Ecuador near the finishing line on their latest sovereign debt overhauls, foreign creditors are nervy about investing again without macroeconomic reforms and International Monetary Fund support, Reuters reported. On the surface, the prospects for both countries look brighter. Absent complicated negotiations with the IMF, a clean slate post-debt restructuring will allow them to focus on reviving their COVID-19-ravaged economies with much less concern about looming foreign debts to repay.

Argentine bonds extended a recent dip on Tuesday after the government formalized its $65 billion debt restructuring offer, underscoring investor concern about the South American country’s shaky economy despite creditors’ rallying behind a deal, Reuters reported. Argentina’s over-the-counter bonds closed down an average of 0.3% and traded at around 45-50 cents on the dollar, well below the 54.8 cents net present value (NPV) of the government’s proposal. The country’s risk index also edged up.

Fitch Ratings said it downgraded the province of Entre Ríos in central Argentina to C from CCC after the provincial government missed a payment on its 8.75% 2025 bonds, LatinFinance reported. Entre Ríos was scheduled to pay $21.9 million in interest on August 8, but it said on August 6 that it planned to renegotiate the 2025 bonds due to negative macroeconomic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fitch said in a report on Wednesday. The province entered a 30-day grace period for the missed payment as it started the debt restructuring process, Fitch added.

After reaching a $65 billion restructuring agreement in principle with its creditors earlier this month, Argentina must now turn to relief from the International Monetary Fund to free up cash in the near term, the IIF said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. “We think external financing will be comfortable if the IMF rolls over its exposure,” the Institute of International Finance said in a note. The agreement with creditors gives Argentina much-needed breathing space.

The national government wants Buenos Aires Province to be the first to resolve debt restructuring talks after its own sovereign bond agreement, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter, the Buenos Aires Times reported. The government's strategy is to prevent debt restructuring talks from other provinces from complicating negotiations related to Buenos Aires Province. thus preventing creditors from demanding better conditions, said the individuals, who asked not to be identified because the negotiations are private.

Argentina's economy is likely to contract 12.5% ​​in 2020, a central bank survey of economists showed on Friday, a slightly more negative outlook than a month earlier as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic hammers the South American nation, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The economic outlook in the monthly report polling 44 economists was down from a 12% estimated drop previously.