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  HONG KONG / AP Chinese appliance maker Midea made a takeover offer for German industrial robot maker Kuka, a move that it says would help it capture a larger share of the “future service robots market.” Midea said it would offer 115 euros (about $130) a share to buy all the Kuka shares it doesn’t already own. The cash ...

  Manila / AFP The Philippines’ economy grew a better-than-expected 6.9 percent in the first quarter, the government said on Thursday, putting it on track to meet full year targets and making it one of Asia’s best performers for the three month period. The GDP figure beat economist forecasts of about 6.6 percent, and marks the highest quarterly growth in ...

  Bloomberg Euro-area officials are weighing a proposal to purchase loans that member states made to Greece in a move that would ease the nation’s debt burden, a precondition for the International Monetary Fund’s involvement in a bailout program. Senior finance ministry officials from the currency bloc held a conference call on Wednesday evening to discuss ways to make Greece’s ...

  Bloomberg The pound has shaken off an unwanted label. It’s no longer the worst-performing Group-of-10 currency of 2016, after surging this week as polls signaled a receding risk of a Brexit following the European Union referendum in June. Sterling cemented its lead over the Australian and New Zealand dollars on Thursday as retail-sales data showed there’s still life in ...

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank is likely to exceed its inflation goal for a while after a long period of near-stagnant prices, Governing Council member Erkki Liikanen said. “You can never have average inflation close to 2 percent if you are never above 2; it’s arithmetic,” Liikanen, the Bank of Finland governor, said in an interview in Helsinki on ...

  Bloomberg The ruble declined the most among peers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, succumbing to retreating oil and pressure on emerging markets from the prospect of a Federal Reserve interest-rate increase. The Russian currency weakened for a second day, falling 1 percent to 66.64 against the dollar by 12:35 p.m in Moscow. Brent crude, the benchmark for ...

  Bloomberg Finland, locked in a downward economic spiral since Nokia Oyj’s fall from atop the smartphone world, cheered the announcement that handsets bearing the company’s badge will reappear, and with them the possibility of much-needed jobs. The country, which eked out 0.5 percent growth in 2015 after three years of recession, took a massive hit when Espoo-based Nokia surrendered ...

  New York / BLOOMBERG Federal Reserve officials want to raise interest rates in June. Now, it is up to the U.S. economy to confirm their view that slow growth in the first quarter was temporary. Minutes of the April 26-27 Federal Open Market Committee meeting released on Wednesday in Washington used the word “June” six times in a policy ...

Bloomberg Tesla Motors Inc. has set an unrealistic goal for itself and will probably miss 2018 production forecasts by a whopping 66 percent, according to a report by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Should that dissuade you from buying the stock? Apparently not—the bank’s analysts upgraded their recommendation from “Neutral” to “Buy.” This is the sort of wild disconnect that Tesla ...

  Bloomberg Brazil’s Acting President Michel Temer is studying the sale of state assets to shore up public accounts, as well as an audit of the country’s largest savings bank, said a government official with direct knowledge of the matter. A government task force will consider selling stakes in companies such as power utility Furnas Centrais Eletricas SA and BR ...