Bloomberg After almost three years of booming health-care dealmaking in the US, 2017 is off to a slow start. Pharmaceutical and biotech acquisitions totaled $44 billion last quarter, down 13 percent from a year earlier, and 35 percent below the first quarter of 2015, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. And exchange-traded funds, a good indicator of investors’ appetite …

  Bloomberg Central and eastern Europe has long been considered a relatively cheap manufacturing hub to make sophisticated products like cars and electronics goods at a fraction of what it would cost in the West. Accelerating salary growth may now be changing that perception. Average nominal wages rose 10.7 percent in Hungary in February from a year ago, the most …

  Bloomberg Euro-area economic momentum accelerated to its fastest pace in six years, with France unexpectedly outperforming Germany in a strong start to the second quarter that suggests the recovery is broadening. France’s composite Purchasing Managers’ Index unexpectedly advanced to a six-year high of 57.4 in April, putting it above Germany’s for the first time since 2012, according IHS Markit …