
The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, has unveiled a series of new commercial agreements with Brazil on Monday, on day one of his visit to showcase British business and deepen trade and economic ties with South America’s biggest economies. Among the measures has been doubling support to £3 billion, to promote bilateral trade.

The rift between senior ministers on how long to allow the free movement of people after Brexit shows all the signs of a Cabinet in a state of civil war, Vince Cable has said. The Liberal Democrat leader's remarks come after International Trade Secretary Liam Fox dismissed the idea that a consensus had been reached on the issue by the Prime Minister's top table.

Spain's economy grew by 0.9% in the second quarter thanks to improved exports and household spending. The growth figure, a first estimate from the National Statistics Institute (INE), suggests the country's economy has finally grown back to the size it was before the credit crunch of 2008.

The United States economy gathered speed in the second quarter of the year, growing at an annualized pace of 2.6%. The pick-up was helped by consumer spending in the quarter expanding at a pace of 2.8%, and businesses stepping up spending on equipment.

Brazil posted another large budget deficit in June, the biggest on record for the month, highlighting the government's uphill battle to meet its budget target amid a slow economic recovery. The monthly primary deficit, before interest rate payments, narrowed in June to 19.552 billion reais (US$6.21 billion) from 30.7 billion in May.

Ireland is against the imposition of an economic border with Northern Ireland and the Irish government is not going to help Britain design one, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Friday.

As the United Kingdom begins contacts to negotiate new trade deals as it leaves the EU in 2019, food will be one of many areas that will need to be addressed. The ongoing spat over chlorine chicken highlights how tastes and safety practices around the world can differ hugely, since what might seem normal practice in one country can seem problematic elsewhere.

Air France-KLM is buying almost a third of Virgin Atlantic, leaving Sir Richard Branson's parent company, Virgin Group, with a minority stake in the airline he founded. Air France-KLM is taking a 31% stake, worth £220m, in Virgin Atlantic as part of a four-way joint-venture with US partner Delta.

Too many documented delays to flights might reduce the attractiveness of the Falklands in terms of an airline considering providing an additional service to the Islands, acknowledged Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Gavin Short this week.

Exxon Mobil said that it has discovered additional oil in the Payara reservoir offshore Guyana, increasing the total discovery to approximately 500 million barrels oil equivalent. The result increases the estimated recoverable resources in Guyana’s Stabroek Block formation to about 2.25 to 2.75 billion barrels. By way of comparison, the much-heralded Thunder Horse find in the Gulf of Mexico has reserves of about one billion barrels.