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Former Bank of America branch site sold in Greensboro

A former Bank of America Corp. branch location in Greensboro has been sold for just under $6 million by a New York group, according to a Guilford County Register of Deeds filing Thursday.

The 1.39-acre property at 2108 N. Church St. contains a 3,274-square-foot building of recent construction. The site now hosts a 7-11 convenience store.

The buyer is 2108 N. Church Street LLC of Douglas Manor, N.Y.

The seller is C4 CStore Holdings III LLC of Charlotte.

Richard Craver

NC weekly jobless claims continue to decline

New state unemployment insurance claims in North Carolina declined last week, this time by 2.3% to 3,309 for the week that ended March 25, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday.

New claims were down from a revised 3,386 for the week that ended March 18.

By comparison, the COVID-19 pandemic low has been 1,848 claims for the week that ended Jan. 1, 2022.

The state was 18th in the nation in the number of unemployment filings, unchanged from last week.

With no COVID-19 pandemic UI programs available for North Carolinians since Sept. 4, 2021, the claim totals represent new regular state unemployment-benefit claims.

Labor listed 17,830 North Carolinians drawing regular state benefits as of March 18, compared with a revised 18,768 the previous week.

Richard Craver

US revises down last quarter's economic growth to 2.6% rate

WASHINGTON - The U.S. economy maintained its resilience from October through December despite rising interest rates, growing at a 2.6% annual pace, the government said Thursday in a slight downgrade from its previous estimate.

The government had previously estimated that the economy expanded at a 2.7% annual rate last quarter. The rise in the gross domestic product - the economy's total output of goods and services - for the October-December quarter was down from the 3.2% growth rate from July through September.

Exports and consumer spending were revised lower in the Thursday report. For all of 2022, the U.S. economy expanded 2.1%, down from a robust 5.9% in 2021.

Associated Press

US to start looking for bias in small business lending

NEW YORK - Banks will need to start reporting the demographics and income of small business loan applicants under new rules published by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Thursday.

It's a move that policymakers hope will lead to less discrimination and more transparency in the small business lending market in a similar way other laws have regulated the residential mortgage market for decades.

Associated Press

Biden pick Ajay Banga cleared to take top job at World Bank

WASHINGTON - The Biden administration's choice to run the World Bank - former Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga - appears to have a lock on the job.

Banga was the only candidate nominated in a search that began more than a month ago.

The current president of the 189-nation poverty-fighting organization, David Malpass, announced last month that he would step down in June, nearly a year before his five-year term was due to expire in April 2024. The World Bank is under pressure to do more to help poor countries to combat and prepare for climate change. Banga, the first Indian-born nominee to run the World Bank, has more than 30 years of business experience.

Associated Press