AFP Brazil’s central bank left unchanged Wednesday its benchmark interest rate as Latin America’s largest economy remains mired in recession and high inflation. The central bank, as expected, kept the key Selic rate at 14.25 percent, where it has been pegged for a year to support the flailing economy. The meeting of the Central Bank Monetary Policy Committee (Copom) …

  As the U.K.’s new prime minister, Theresa May, met with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany on Wednesday to open informal Brexit talks that European Union leaders insisted would not take place, the key question concerns the strength of the negotiating positions. Both May and Merkel are no-nonsense leaders, and their interaction won’t be driven by emotion: It’ll be about …

The U.K. decision to quit the European Union appears to be slowing the global recovery. But the government’s policy response put the domestic economy on a stronger footing than before, limiting Brexit’s negative impact on the rest of the world. Britain, previously Europe’s poster child for austerity, has an opportunity to augment the Bank of England’s monetary-policy efforts with some …