Simultaneously grappling with surging deaths from Covid-19, recession and a weak currency, Brazil at least won’t have problem finding dollars to pay for imports and service its foreign debt in the aftermath of the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. As Brazilians stop traveling and spending money abroad, the country’s long-running current account deficit is narrowing fast and could even become a surplus this year. In April alone, it was a positive $3.8 billion, the highest ever according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

As another debt deadline came and went this week, Argentina found itself in a familiar place: immersed in recession, beholden to the International Monetary Fund and at cross purposes with private lenders. If the coronavirus pandemic has bought Argentina some international indulgence, as the IMF made clear in a statement on June 1, it hasn’t eased the country’s burden or lifted uncertainty, Bloomberg News reported. Argentina surely deserves debt relief, but also a credible way forward. Borrower and creditors alike reckon that a deal will emerge; they have been inching closer for weeks.

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.