IMF officials say Argentina can still improve its restructuring offer on $65bn of debt with foreign creditors as it continues negotiations after slipping into default last month, the Financial Times reported. “There is still room for Argentina to increase payments to private creditors,” Julie Kozack, deputy director for the IMF’s western hemisphere department, told the Financial Times on Tuesday.

Ecuador is kicking off the first round of creditor talks this week with the goal of releasing an initial debt restructuring offer as early as late June, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, Bloomberg News reported. President Lenin Moreno’s administration is pressing to avoid a hard default and to regain access to credit markets. The South American nation plans to convene a call with its biggest bondholders, including a group led by BlackRock Inc.

Aerolineas Argentinas will begin negotiations with unions to suspend the contracts of thousands of employees until August after the flag carrier’s income plunged about 97% due to the coronavirus outbreak, it said on Monday, Reuters reported. The airline, which is staying afloat largely through state support, will pay workers’ social security and make smaller, spot payments during the proposed two-month suspension, it said in a statement. A source told Reuters the carrier aims to suspend some 8,000 of its 12,000 employees.

Argentina may have to dole out at least $880 million in subsidies this year to keep its state airline afloat, further weighing on government finances after the nation’s ninth sovereign default, Bloomberg News reported. Aerolineas Argentinas President Pablo Ceriani said the carrier’s budget shortfalls, up from about $680 million last year, will persist until demand rebounds, which isn’t expected for a couple of years.

Argentina and its key bondholders are getting closer to a $65 billion debt restructuring deal after the country defaulted on its overseas debt for the ninth time in its history, Bloomberg News reported. While still at odds over several key issues, the latest changes in the proposals by the government and two groups of creditors published Thursday signal the difference between both sides is narrowing. Argentina is now weighing extending the deadline for its offer beyond June 2, giving the parties more time to reach a deal, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.

LATAM Airlines, the largest Latin American air transport group, had losses of $2.12 billion in the first quarter after an accounting adjustment of its assets amid the coronavirus pandemic, the company said in a statement late on Friday, Reuters reported. LATAM said its operational quarterly result was 17% higher year-on-year despite the fact that in March it reduced its offer of flights due to the first effects of the health crisis.

Argentina published a new debt offer that shortens its payment moratorium to two years and delays principal payments for half a decade. Under the revised proposal, the South American nation wouldn’t pay coupons until 2022, Bloomberg News reported. Its initial offer called for a three-year delay. Principal repayments would begin in May 2025, according to a statement from the Economy Ministry. President Alberto Fernandez’s administration entered talks with its largest creditors on Saturday after formally defaulting for the ninth time in the nation’s history.

LATAM Airlines Group’s U.S. bankruptcy filing this week will delay its potential bailout in Brazil to at least July and also push back aid to its rivals at least through the end of June, two sources said on Thursday, Reuters reported. The delays will add further strain to Brazil’s airlines, which were already in weak shape before the pandemic. Rivals Azul SA and Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA are also negotiating bailouts. “The bailout will happen; what could happen is that it may be staggered due to LATAM’s situation,” said one source.

Argentina’s former nemesis Paul Singer is standing judgment over the nation’s bond market once more, Bloomberg News reported. Four years after cutting a deal with the hedge fund billionaire to end a lengthy legal dispute over its defaulted debt, the South American country can’t pay its debts again and Singer is back for a brief encore. His investment firm Elliott Management Corp. is one of 14 companies that will decide whether credit-default swaps were triggered by last week’s failure to meet a payment deadline.

Argentina’s ninth default on its external debt is now official after some of its bonds were cut to default status by two rating companies, Bloomberg News reported. Fitch Ratings reduced the South American nation to restricted default Tuesday, while S&P Global downgraded four of its dollar-denominated bonds to default from CC following a missed $500 million payment last week.