Global factory growth ends on low note

    GLOBAL manufacturing activity expanded at its weakest pace in more than a year at the end of 2014, even though factories cut their prices at the steepest rate for nine months, a business survey showed Friday.

    JP Morgan’s Global Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, produced with Markit, fell to 51.6 in December from November’s 51.8. That was its lowest reading since August 2013. Even so, it has now been above the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction for two years.

    Lithuania joins euro

    LITHUANIA joined the eurozone Friday, hoping to anchor itself in Europe as its former master Russia flexes its military muscle in the region.

    Lithuania is the last of the three Baltic states to join the currency union and will be the last country to do so for the foreseeable future, with remaining European Union members at least two years.

    Fed’s Mester sees rate rise in next six months

    A TOP Federal Reserve official said Friday she could see the U.S. central bank raising interest rates in the first half of the year, earlier than some expect, given that the economy is on a “very firm footing.”

    “The Fed is preparing the public and the markets,” Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester said. “I do believe that inflation will gradually move back to our target, so I could imagine interest rates going up in the first half of the year.”