
British Prime Minister Theresa May was starting a crucial trade visit to China on Wednesday as she admitted the two countries will not always see eye-to-eye in sensitive areas like steel over-capacity and intellectual property rights.

The level of risk facing China’s financial system could be higher than was seen in the United States before the global crash, according to a former Chinese finance minister. Speaking at a forum in Beijing over the weekend, Lou Jiwei, now chairman of the National Social Security Fund Council, also described the state of China’s financial sector as “messy”.

The UK economy expanded at a slightly faster pace in the fourth quarter on services and manufacturing output, but the full-year growth was the weakest in five years, preliminary data from the Office for National Statistics showed. GDP grew 0.5% sequentially in the fourth quarter, while the rate was forecast to remain unchanged at 0.4%.

Daniel Funes de Rioja, Chair of B20, promoted the B20 agenda among British business, chambers, institutions and members of the press at the “B20 Priorities and Challenges” seminar at the Argentine Official Residence in London.

The Falkland Islands Executive Council (its effective Cabinet) agreed late last week a set of budgeting principles for the Government over the coming financial year beginning 1st July 2018. These principles are likely to apply throughout the four year term of the current Legislative Assembly, though will be formally reviewed by the Assembly annually.

Brazil’s government will tap the nation’s sovereign fund and recent surpluses to cut debt and avoid breaking budget rules this year, officials said on Monday, after easily meeting the 2017 fiscal target.

Chile's economy is likely to grow by 3.5% this year on the back of increased confidence in a new presidential administration and in improving global economy, the future finance minister said in a local newspaper published on Sunday.

A long-awaited major trade deal between the EU and Mercosur may this week take a key step towards realization with ministerial teams from both sides meeting in Brussels on Monday. They are expected to give negotiators a new, decisive political impulse to reach agreement in a matter of weeks, according to Irish sources.

President Trump declared America “open for business” in a speech on Friday to global to political and business elites in Davos, Switzerland, while taking a hard line on trade and vowing to make commerce with other countries “fair and reciprocal.”

A deeper relationship with Europe will benefit the UK economy, the governor of the Bank of England has argued. Mark Carney's comments follow claims by chancellor Philip Hammond that the UK and EU economies will only move very modestly apart after Brexit.