Bloomberg Norway can’t afford an abrupt cut in spending if the economy of western Europe’s biggest oil and gas producer is to continue growing, according to the man who most polls suggest will be prime minister after elections this year. Jonas Gahr Store, the leader of Norway’s opposition Labor Party, warned against a sudden adjustment after record expenditure by …

  Bloomberg Oil edged lower after a report showed US gasoline supplies increased for the first time in nine weeks even as crude stockpiles dropped. Gasoline inventories rose 1.54 million barrels last week, surprising analysts surveyed by Bloomberg who projected the Energy Information Administration data would show a 2-million-barrel decline. Crude inventories fell 1.03 million barrels to 532.3 million last …

  Bloomberg China’s shadow banking is back in full swing, an unintended side effect of the government’s campaign against financial leverage, which has curbed traditional lending and squeezed bond financing. Data from the central bank showed that off-balance sheet lending surged 754 billion yuan ($109 billion) in March, taking the first quarter’s total increase to a record 2.05 trillion yuan. …