
The world's largest operational hydroelectric dam, Itaipu Plant announced that starting next Monday, May 18, it will open its spillway to help Paraguay and Argentina, which are suffering from a drought and hence having problems transporting their grain harvest.

Argentine bonds jumped on Tuesday as the country’s government and creditors sought to strike a deal to restructure US$ 65 billion in foreign debt by May 22 after an initial deadline passed last week without a pact.

Ships transporting cargo from Argentina's Rosario grain hub through the Parana River are having to reduce their cargoes after a bank collapse obstructed the navigation channel, exporters have revealed.

Argentina will extend negotiations over a US$ 65bn debt restructuring proposal until May 22, the government said in the official gazette on Monday. The extension sets the stage for tense last-ditch talks as Argentina races to avoid default.

Argentina is preparing to extend the deadline to its debt offer to May 22. The government will publish an extension to its debt offer in the official Gazette this Monday, 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.

After 50 days in mandatory lockdown, Argentina's President Alberto Fernández announced on Friday that the quarantine will be extended until May 24th.

Argentina will keep pushing for talks with creditors even as a deadline for its US$ 65 billion debt restructuring proposal passed on Friday with little sign it had the support needed from international bondholders to unlock a comprehensive deal. Apparently on averaged less than 20% of bondholders accepted Argentina's conditions

Argentina's Economy Minister Martin Guzman has given the country's biggest bondholders until this Friday to accept the offer he has put on the table to suspend payments until 2023 and reduce interest rates thereafter. One of the largest of those creditors, the investment management firm BlackRock, rejected Guzman's proposal and immediately presented a counteroffer.

Several hundred activists blocked this week one of Buenos Aires' main avenues for hours to demand food for soup kitchens that feed hundreds of thousands in poor neighborhoods during the mandatory lockdown aimed at preventing the spread of the new coronavirus.

By Joseph Stiglitz, Edmund S. Phelps, and Carmen Reinhart (*) – Argentina's creditors are being asked to accept a proposal that would reduce their revenue stream but make it sustainable. A responsible resolution will set a positive precedent, not only for Argentina but for the international financial system as a whole.