Spain Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will find it tough to avoid asking for a full-scale sovereign bailout despite steps taken at an EU summit to help the country’s indebted banks and pressured borrowing costs. Euro zone leaders agreed on Friday to let their rescue fund

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The pace of US economic growth increased in the final three months of 2011, according to official figures. The economy grew at an annualized rate of 2.8%, the Commerce Department said. This was up from the 1.8% annual rate recorded in

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Brazil’s central bank has unexpectedly cut the country’s key interest rate to 12% from 12.5%, citing a “substantial deterioration” in the outlook for the global economy. The bank’s rate-setting committee voted five to two in favor of

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Moody may downgrade the US debt rating if Congress fails to increase the US debt limit in the coming weeks and risks default. Republicans on Wednesday blocked a bill to raise the debt limit,

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Eurozone interest rates have been raised to 1.25% by the European Central Bank ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet said that the rate rise was in response to the risk of accelerating inflation, and added that rates were still very low.

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The Federal Reserve will announce later its plans to stimulate the US economy, with expectations high that they will feature the reintroduction of so-called quantitative easing (QE). Many analysts expect the Fed to start pumping around $500bn (£310bn) into the economy to boost the fragile recovery.

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The US dollar has hit a 15-year low against the yen after the G20 nations agreed to avoid a currency war. The weekend talks, in South Korea, saw the group of 20 major advanced and developing nations, agree to avoid competing to lower

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US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has opened the way to a new round of quantitative easing. “There would appear, all else being equal, to be a case for further action,” he said, in a speech to the Boston regional federal reserve.

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The US trade deficit was wider than expected in August, figures have shown, in the wake of record imports from China. US Commerce Department figures showed the gap between imported and exported goods grew by 8.8% to $46.4bn (£29bn).

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Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao says his country will continue to support both the euro and European government bonds. “I have made clear that China supports a stable euro,” he said. He also promised not to cut China’s investment in European bonds,

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