Trade-agreement negotiations between the EU and the four South American countries that comprise Mercosur have dragged on for 17 years, but they’ve taken on a new urgency due to US protectionist policies. The two sides aim to finalize an agreement by the end of the year.
This month’s transfer of Brazilian soccer player Neymar from the Spanish super club Barcelona to the French super club Paris St-Germain included a transfer fee of over $250 million, putting it on a par with some of the year’s biggest cross-border M&A deals. The transaction speaks to the changing nature of global super clubs and to the global economy itself.
The World Bank projects global growth to improve to 2.7 percent in 2017, up from a decade-low 2.4 in 2016. Growth rates should further improve over the next two years. We summarize the important points of the World Bank's recent Global Economics Prospects report and take a look at its forecasts for five critical global economies.