Bloomberg U.K. industrial production grew less than forecast in March as manufacturing barely rose and oil and gas output shrank. Output rose 0.3 percent, less than the 0.5 percent gain predicted in a Bloomberg survey of economists, figures from the Office for National Statistics published on Wednesday show. It followed a 0.2 percent decline in February. Factories increased production …

  Bloomberg Norway’s government boosted the amount of oil money it will spend this year to a record, dipping deeper into its sovereign wealth fund to ward off a recession. The government will use 205.6 billion kroner ($25 billion) of its oil wealth, up from the 195.2 billion kroner it estimated in October, according to the budget released in Oslo …

  Bloomberg The European Union blocked CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd.’s bid to create the U.K.’s biggest mobile carrier, the latest setback to consolidation that telecommunications operators say they need to funnel money into new networks. Hutchison’s plan to buy Telefonica SA’s U.K. mobile-phone business for as much as 10.25 billion pounds ($14.8 billion) and merge it with its Three unit …