Economy

• Thursday, June 28th 2018 - 13:11 UTC

  Berlin and Paris angry with UK over Brexit, a “pain in the ass” distracting from major issues

  

  Influential EU states such as Germany, France and Spain will block any attempt by the UK to remain within the single market for goods without freedom of movement, the Spanish Foreign Minister has said. Josep Borrell said that some smaller EU states might privately be willing to negotiate reform of the bloc’s free movement rules in order to keep easy access to UK products.

• Thursday, June 28th 2018 - 12:45 UTC

  Good news for British farmers: China lifts ban on beef from the UK

  

  China has ended a two-decades-long ban on exports of beef from the UK, first introduced after the outbreak of BSE - or “mad cow disease” - in the 1990s. The government said the development will be worth £250m to British producers over the next five years.

• Thursday, June 28th 2018 - 11:57 UTC

  Black Wednesday for Argentina and Brazil as selloff intensifies across emerging markets assets

  

  Argentina’s benchmark MerVal stock index closed down 8.8% on Wednesday, its worst daily performance since early 2014, as concerns about trade tensions between the United States and China prompted a selloff across emerging market assets.

• Thursday, June 28th 2018 - 10:11 UTC

  López Obrador closes his campaign with an anticipated victory

  

  The candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador closed his electoral campaign last Wednesday ahead the presidential elections on Sunday filling the largest stadium in the world on a working day. The only leftist candidate steals public attention in Mexico and leads the polls with an anti-system and reforming discourse.

• Wednesday, June 27th 2018 - 08:26 UTC

  Brazilian shares recover cautiously; Central bank absent from the foreign exchange market

  

  After trading lower for a good part of Tuesday's session, the Ibovespa closed higher for the third consecutive day (+0.64%), to 71,404.59 points, driven mainly by the shares of Petrobras and Vale. The improvement in the U.S. stock markets also helped to recover the benchmark stock index in Brazil, although concerns remain about a world trade war.

• Wednesday, June 27th 2018 - 08:12 UTC

  Argentine economy shrinks 0.9% as agriculture hit by drought plummets 31%

  

  Argentina’s economy shrank in April for the first time in more than a year, government data showed on Tuesday, while the central bank held its policy rate stable at 40% in the first rate decision since a shakeup in its leadership.

• Tuesday, June 26th 2018 - 09:17 UTC

  Argentine public service unions strike to protest IMF deal halts the country

  

  Argentina ground to a halt on Monday as public service unions blocked road, rail and air transport with a nationwide 24-hour strike in protest at the government's latest deal with the International Monetary Fund. In a massive show of force against the conservative government of President Mauricio Macri, organizers said at least one million workers were taking part in the industrial action which halted trains, subways, buses and flights in Latin America's third-largest economy.

• Tuesday, June 26th 2018 - 09:13 UTC

  Brazil's trade surplus hit strongly by the truckers’ strike

  

  The truck drivers' strike which paralyzed Brazil's trade and supply for about 10 days in May had a significant effect on the country's economy, its central bank reported on Monday.

• Tuesday, June 26th 2018 - 09:06 UTC

  Petrobras agrees to pay US$ 3bn in reparations to US investors

  

  Brazilian state oil company Petrobras announced Monday that it would pay almost 3 billion U.S. dollars in reparations to U.S. investors who were harmed by the corruption ring within the firm. Brazil's largest company was sued in a class action lawsuit, which was approved on June 22 by a federal court in New York.

• Tuesday, June 26th 2018 - 09:03 UTC

  UK government under pressure to increase defense budget to 3% of GDP

  

  The British government must increase spending on the armed forces if Britain is to maintain its defense relationship with the United States, MPs have warned. The Commons Defense Committee said without further investment, UK forces would struggle to maintain “interoperability” with the US military, diminishing their usefulness as allies.