FRANKFURT, Germany >> Volkswagen is set to oust its chief executive, Matthias Mueller, as it grapples with a diesel emissions scandal that has cost it billions of dollars, led to the imprisonment of two executives and scarred the German carmaker’s reputation.

Herbert Diess, who is in charge of the company’s flagship Volkswagen brand, was likely to succeed Mueller, according to two people with knowledge of the internal discussions. The company said earlier Tuesday that it was considering a leadership change, and a final decision was expected by the end of the week.

While there was no obvious trigger for Mueller’s departure at this moment, his efforts to lead the company beyond the 2015 emissions cheating scandal have stalled.

The repercussions of the wrongdoing have continued to multiply, tainting not only Volkswagen, but also its rivals BMW and Daimler just as they are dealing with an industrywide shift toward electric and self-driving vehicles. Political leaders are pressing the German carmakers to compensate diesel owners who bought cars that turned out to be dirtier than advertised, which could add to the already astronomical cost of the scandal.

Asia growth outlook raised amid tensions

HONG KONG >> Developing Asian economies will expand at a slightly faster pace this year than earlier forecast, but trade tensions with the U.S. pose a major risk, the Asian Development Bank said Wednesday in its latest regional update.

The Manila-based lender said it expects the region to expand at a 6 percent clip in 2018, slightly above its previous forecast, after recording 6.1 percent growth last year.

For 2019 it predicts growth will ease to 5.9 percent.

The bank said robust exports and strong domestic consumer demand are supporting activity across the 45 economies it covers in its annual report.

Risks to the growth outlook are driven mainly by “fears of escalating trade tensions,” it said, referring to Chinese-U.S. trade tensions that have threatened to escalate into an all-out trade war. The report did not mention President Donald Trump, but it was clearly referring to his trade policies, which have involved threatening China with higher tariffs on tens of billions of dollars of exports in a dispute that centers on complaints from foreign companies that say they’re forced to hand over their technology. Beijing has responded with its own proposed list of tariffs of a similar amount.

Growth in China’s economy, the world’s second biggest, is set to cool to 6.6 percent in 2018 and 6.4 percent in 2019 after logging 6.9 percent growth last year, it said.

ON THE MOVE

Bowers+Kubota, an employee­- owned kamaaina architectural/engineering firm, has hired the following employees: Ken Duty, project inspector; Yuriko Vargas, accountant; Cynthia Lewis, project administrator; Jesse Francisco, designer 1; Daron Yim, project architect; and Bill Renz, construction manager.