Argentina has lost an attempt to halt a lawsuit in English courts brought by four hedge funds which say the country has manipulated economic data to avert payments in connection with growth-linked sovereign debt instruments, Reuters reported. Asset managers Palladian Partners L.P., HBK Master Fund L.P, Hirsh Group LLC and Virtual Emerald International Limited said they are owed from 525 million-645 million euros in payments linked to the GDP warrants designed to pay out to investors if a number of growth criteria targets are met or exceeded.

Latin America is at the centre of the coronavirus pandemic, suffering some of the worst infection rates and highest death tolls in the world, the Financial Times reported. Now economists warn that the region faces more bad news: its sickly economies risk falling into a new debt crisis even worse than the last big bust of the 1980s. The continent was struggling with multiple “pre-existing conditions” before the virus took hold: anaemic growth, weak health systems, low tax revenues, high levels of borrowing and an over-reliance on commodity exports.

Ecuador pushed forward with its debt overhaul plans on Monday, requesting a vote among its creditors on reconfiguring the terms of $17.4 billion of its external bonds, with its largest group of creditors backing the proposal, Reuters reported. Under the proposed deal - unchanged from the government’s earlier proposal - 10 existing bonds maturing between 2022 and 2030 would be swapped for three bonds due in 2030, 2035 and 2040, as well as a past due interest bond maturing in 2030.

Argentina’s three largest creditor groups joined forces to submit a new bond restructuring proposal that would provide the country more than $35 billion in debt relief over the next nine years, Bloomberg News reported. The Ad Hoc group, the Exchange Bondholder group and the Argentina Creditor Committee, which represent investors including BlackRock Inc. and Ashmore Group PLC, said that they had agreed to form a negotiating bloc and reject the government’s latest offer.

The Group of 20 leading economies this weekend may have to consider expanding help for the world’s poorest countries, three months after agreeing to provide temporary debt relief, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage nations, Bloomberg News reported. Central bankers and finance ministers from the G-20 will hold a virtual meeting on Saturday to discuss and coordinate phased efforts to spur a global economic recovery. Looking beyond just debt relief efforts would be part of that.

Argentina’s government sent a bill to Congress late on Thursday night laying out its plans to restructure public debt in dollars issued under local law, offering creditors new instruments in both foreign currency and pesos, Reuters reported. The process to revamp the local-law debt is running in parallel to tense negotiations with international creditors to restructure $65 billion of the nation’s foreign-law bonds, with a deadline for creditors to accept a “final” offer on Aug. 4.

Alberto Fernández, Argentina’s president, has made an impassioned appeal for the world to accept that — with an economy devastated by coronavirus — he cannot budge from his final offer to restructure $65bn of foreign debt, the Financial Times reported. Weighed down by $323bn of borrowing, Argentina was already in a deep recession before the pandemic and in May the South American country defaulted for the ninth time in its history — although no creditors have attempted to sue it yet.

Ecuador is coming under pressure to sweeten its $17.4bn debt restructuring after some bondholders balked at the terms of the deal it presented earlier this month, the Financial Times reported. The country — one of the poorest in Latin America — said in March that it would be unable to repay all its debts as it deals with the fallout of Covid-19 and a collapse in oil prices. Earlier this month, the government announced a provisional agreement to cut and stretch out repayments, with the backing of the holders of around half of its bonds, including heavyweights Ashmore and BlackRock.

Two groups of Ecuador bondholders have proposed revised restructuring terms to the government as it seeks to strike a deal to renegotiate $17.4 billion in debt, Reuters reported. The government’s proposal already has the backing of one group of creditors, holding around half of the bonds and including AllianceBernstein, Ashmore and BlackRock.

The International Chamber of Commerce, a global trade union and civil society groups urged the Group of 20 major economies to extend and expand a freeze in debt service payments to help not just the poorest, but also middle-income countries, weather the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The ICC, International Trade Union Confederation, and Global Citizen, a group pushing to end extreme poverty by 2030, also called on G20 finance ministers, who will meet online on July 18, to take additional st