The Covid-19 pandemic pushed Moody’s Investors Service to downgrade Argentina, Ecuador and Zambia deeper into junk territory on Friday, Bloomberg News reported. Moody’s warned of escalating default risks in the three developing nations as global coronavirus cases topped 1 million. The combination of stalled trade, low commodity prices and deteriorating growth has sent emerging-market risk premiums soaring. Bonds from Argentina, Ecuador and Zambia have tumbled amid concern the nations may follow Lebanon’s lead in defaulting.

For emerging economies, coronavirus struck first through the financial markets. Long before the numbers of cases and deaths in these countries began to spread alarm, many emerging markets experienced a sudden halt in foreign investment inflows, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. Overseas investors have taken $95bn out of EM stocks and bonds since late January, according to the Institute of International Finance, dwarfing the withdrawals that followed the onset of the global financial crisis in September 2008.

Argentina’s debt restructuring talks with creditors will continue for at least two more weeks after the centre-left government failed to meet its deadline of March 31 to cut a deal, the Financial Times reported. The deadline had been considered to be ambitious by investors and economy minister Martin Guzmán admitted on Tuesday that the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, which has now claimed 27 lives in Argentina, had further delayed progress in negotiations.

Brazil’s largest fixed-line carrier Oi SA has kicked off a renewable energy project that will cut its operating costs by 400 million reais ($77.09 million) per year, the company said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The initiative is part of Oi’s efforts to gain efficiency as it strives to revamp its business since filing for bankruptcy protection in June 2016. The renewable project, which involves 25 solar, biomass and hydroelectric mills totaling 123 megawatts in capacity, follows the so-called “distributed generation” model, in which Oi buys clean energy at lower prices.

Brazil’s government is considering an emergency loan package for energy distributors struggling with lower energy use and facing lost revenues because of the coronavirus outbreak, an industry group told Reuters on Monday, Reuters reported. Marcos Madureira, president of Brazilian energy distributors association Abradee, said the package being negotiated by companies and the government could involve loans from state development bank BNDES or a pool of banks, but that the value of the loans and other details was not yet settled.

Argentina said it will still try to avoid a costly default, even as it extends a nationwide lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus. President Alberto Fernandez said that the country would still prioritize avoiding a default on its overseas debt, even though the already struggling economy will be hampered by a government-ordered lockdown, now in effect until April 12, Bloomberg News reported.

Cracks are appearing across the emerging-market landscape like never before. As most nations brace themselves for a likely surge in coronavirus cases through April, the signals from the developing world could hardly be more worrying for investors, Bloomberg News reported. Indexes of stocks, bonds and currencies may have risen last week as countries from India and Brazil to South Africa enacted unprecedented measures to buttress their economies, but the retreat on Friday was a reminder the turmoil is far from over.

Ecuador has acknowledged it will fail to make coupon payments on three bonds due later this week but insists it will pay up within the 30-day grace period, as it scrambles for cash amid the Covid-19 outbreak and the crash in oil prices, the Financial Times reported. In an online press conference on Monday night, finance minister Richard Martínez said the government would make a $325m payment due on Tuesday on its 2020 bond, but needed more time to come up with $200m to service bonds due in 2022, 2025 and 2030. Coupon payments had been due this Friday and Saturday.

Argentina’s plans to restructure more than $100bn of private sector debt have been thrown into disarray by the coronavirus pandemic, which is threatening to plunge the country’s already struggling economy into an even deeper recession, the Financial Times reported. While the crisis that has hit global investments could make creditors less willing to compromise, analysts warn, it could also embolden the government to push for a harsher deal, raising the chances of a disorderly default.

Ecuador’s Congress called on the government to suspend debt payments to free up cash to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, prompting JPMorgan Chase & Co. to warn of a potential default as soon as Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported. The South American nation’s $3 billion of bonds due in 2028 fell 3.5 cents to a record low 31 cents on the dollar, pushing yields to 33%. Ecuador has about $320 million of debt due tomorrow and coupon payments later this week.