Argentina and creditors seeking to hash out a $65 billion bond restructuring are still far apart, just days away from a deadline that could plunge the country into default, Bloomberg News reported. Talks have continued since bondholders sent two counterproposals Friday, but there’s a gap of about 20 cents on the dollar between the government’s offer and the most aggressive creditors, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.

A growing number of Argentine provinces are hiring advisers and weighing options for their foreign debt loads as the national government advances its own talks to restructure $65 billion, Bloomberg News reported. Half a dozen regional governments are taking their own steps as Argentina negotiates with holders of its overseas debt ahead of a May 22 deadline. For provinces, which hold $15 billion in debt and rely on disbursements from the central government, the fate of the national talks are key.

Argentina’s largest and most populous province was cut to selective default by S&P Global Ratings after it missed a deadline to make a $150 million payment. The province is considered to be in selective default because negotiations with creditors are ongoing, making the proposal a “distressed exchange,” according to an S&P statement, Bloomberg News reported. Buenos Aires extended this week to May 26 an offer to restructure $7 billion of overseas debt.

Months of concern over rising Covid-19 infection levels may be secondary for investors in coming days as market-moving events and policy decisions take center stage, Bloomberg News reported. China’s annual National People’s Congress starting Friday will likely keep volatility suppressed for developing-nation currencies, despite the prospect of another flareup in tensions between Beijing and Washington.

While most of the world contemplates with dread the economic destruction wreaked by the coronavirus, for many Argentine entrepreneurs it is just one more challenge to overcome, the Financial Times reported. Accustomed to dealing with crises on an all-too-regular basis, many start-ups have succeeded in turning misfortune to their advantage. Argentina’s last major economic collapse in 2001-02 served as a catalyst for the rise of some of its most successful companies.

Argentina’s bondholders need to present a reasonable counteroffer to avoid another debt default by the South American nation, according to Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz, Bloomberg News reported. The Columbia University professor, who has mentored Argentina’s Economy Minister Martin Guzman, praised the government of President Alberto Fernandez for coming up with a plan that would put the country’s debt on a sustainable path.

Argentina is said to be preparing to extend the deadline to its debt offer to May 22, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, Bloomberg News reported. The government will publish an extension to its debt offer in the official Gazette on Monday, said the people, who couldn’t be named because the matter is private. The extension is part of President Alberto Fernandez’s next steps in its debt restructuring after extending a deadline over the weekend for creditors to accept an initial offer to exchange $65 billion in overseas bonds.

Argentina may consider easing the country’s ultra tight capital controls once it finishes negotiations with bondholders to restructure its debt and coronavirus uncertainty clears, Economy Minister Martin Guzman said, Bloomberg News reported. The government acknowledges the need to relax the controls over its currency markets as a way to promote economic activity, Guzman said in an interview, declining to give any time frame when such a change may take place.

Argentina’s government said it’s open to new proposals from it’s creditors to restructure $65 billion in debt, signaling a greater willingness to negotiate in talks to avoid another chaotic default, Bloomberg News reported. “We are willing to consider any combination of reduction of interest, reduction of principal, extension and maturity of grace period that respects the constraints that define what is sustainable,” Economy Minister Martin Guzman told Bloomberg News in an interview, two days before a government’s offer to bondholders expires.

Argentina’s economy minister has sought to raise the stakes with the country’s bondholders by suggesting his government would consider defaulting on $65bn of foreign debt unless investors engaged in negotiations to alleviate its financial burden while tackling the coronavirus pandemic, the Financial Times reported.