• 

  Associated Press Finance

  Aid groups appeal to the European Union to release urgent funds for Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA

  Humanitarian aid groups appealed on Thursday to the European Union to release tens of millions of euros in funding due to the main U.N. agency that delivers most aid to people in the Gaza Strip as the organization teeters on the brink of financial collapse. The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, was due to disburse 82 million euros ($89 million) to the UNRWA aid agency on Feb. 29. UNRWA said that it still hadn't received the payment as of Thursday morning.

• 

  The Wall Street Journal

  Biggest Gains in Social Responsibility in the Management Top 250

  The Management Top 250 ranking, compiled by researchers at the Drucker Institute, part of Claremont Graduate University, compares companies using the late management guru Peter Drucker’s principles to identify the most effectively managed businesses. The five main components of the ranking are customer satisfaction, employee engagement and development, innovation, social responsibility and financial strength. Ingersoll Rand’s social-responsibility score jumped 12.6 points from a year earlier to 64.1, good for a ranking of 45th for the category, the company’s highest rank in any of the five components.

• 

  Reuters

  US inflation increases in line with expectations in January

  U.S. prices picked up in January, but the annual increase in inflation was the smallest in nearly three years, keeping a June interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve on the table. The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index rose 0.3% last month, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis said on Thursday. Data for December was revised lower to show the PCE price index gaining 0.1% instead of 0.2% as previously reported.