Browse content similar to 05/03/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
Milly Dowler's phone hacking. Time for the latest business news. | :00:00. | :00:16. | |
7.5% growth, that is what China is aiming for this year at the start of | :00:17. | :00:23. | |
its annual leaders meeting. Australia sends emergency relief to | :00:24. | :00:28. | |
farmers hard-hit by drought in the eastern parts of the country. | :00:29. | :00:36. | |
Welcome to the Asia Business Report. We start with China and its | :00:37. | :00:42. | |
Parliament has begun its annual meeting in Beijing. In its opening | :00:43. | :00:48. | |
speech, the Premier said that the world's second economy is aiming for | :00:49. | :00:57. | |
a expansion in 2014. -- 7.5% expansion. | :00:58. | :01:01. | |
The delegates have been listening to a speech by the Chinese Premier. | :01:02. | :01:06. | |
This is widely viewed as a rubber stamp Parliament. But it does give a | :01:07. | :01:15. | |
sense of the broad direction of travel of Chinese reforms. In the | :01:16. | :01:21. | |
Premier's speech there will be a lot for investors and finance ministers | :01:22. | :01:26. | |
across the region to be pleased about. He spoke about efforts to | :01:27. | :01:31. | |
tackle local government debt, something that has caused concern. | :01:32. | :01:34. | |
He spoke about continuing to liberalise interest rates. He heads | :01:35. | :01:43. | |
at further injections of private capital in state-owned industries. | :01:44. | :01:48. | |
And of course, the important headlines figure of 7.5% growth. | :01:49. | :01:53. | |
There will be a sense from some people, this consensus that China | :01:54. | :02:00. | |
needs to undergo painful structural reforms that the fact the growth | :02:01. | :02:05. | |
rate has been kept at 7.5% that has not been any lowering of the growth | :02:06. | :02:09. | |
rate that some will question how serious it is about embracing the | :02:10. | :02:16. | |
pain that the reforms are going to require and when it is that China | :02:17. | :02:19. | |
will accept the growth rate needs to come down. | :02:20. | :02:22. | |
Fighting pollution is also at the top of the agenda. Reforms to boost | :02:23. | :02:32. | |
non- fossil fuels, any idea when we will be getting more details of | :02:33. | :02:39. | |
implementation? We do not have further details. Some of the | :02:40. | :02:44. | |
measures outlined give us more of a sense of what China wants to do this | :02:45. | :02:51. | |
year. It is a growing area of public concern. Of interest in the speech | :02:52. | :02:58. | |
is although we have seen a little bit of the usual Communist Party | :02:59. | :03:04. | |
official speak, such as the socialist modernisation drive, there | :03:05. | :03:12. | |
have also been doses of reality. In the face of the economic | :03:13. | :03:19. | |
difficulties, he said the global economy is undergoing profound | :03:20. | :03:22. | |
adjustment and competition is getting fierce. We are at a critical | :03:23. | :03:29. | |
juncture where the path upward is steep. Analysts will be analysing | :03:30. | :03:34. | |
whether the reforms go far and fast enough to lighten the uphill | :03:35. | :03:40. | |
struggle. That is outside the great Hall of | :03:41. | :03:46. | |
the people in Beijing. You can get more on that on our website. | :03:47. | :03:54. | |
In Australia, the economy grew by 2.8% in the final quarter of 2013 | :03:55. | :04:00. | |
when, compared to the same period in 2012. The GDP figure comes a day | :04:01. | :04:07. | |
after the country's central bank has decided to keep its cost of | :04:08. | :04:12. | |
borrowing on hold at 2.5%. The central bank's governor said the | :04:13. | :04:19. | |
resources sector is set to decline. Economic growth had been driven by | :04:20. | :04:26. | |
the mining boom and demand for national resources from China. Two | :04:27. | :04:37. | |
things that stand out on net exports. The IBA expects consumption | :04:38. | :04:48. | |
to hold up. -- RBA. Can this be sustained this quarter? That is an | :04:49. | :04:54. | |
important question. One of the questions is how much will occur | :04:55. | :05:04. | |
with future exports. Overall I think there will be enough that exports to | :05:05. | :05:12. | |
offset the mining sector slowdown. But we see a statement that the | :05:13. | :05:18. | |
resources are spending is going to decline significantly? Absolutely. | :05:19. | :05:27. | |
They are expecting this. It peaked in 2012. They expected to slow down | :05:28. | :05:33. | |
further this year. This is a bit of a trade-off. Growth could come under | :05:34. | :05:40. | |
pressure. But they want to move away from the reliance on mining. They | :05:41. | :05:47. | |
have also stated there will be removing away from reliance on | :05:48. | :05:56. | |
infrastructure and construction. There is decline from the Chinese. | :05:57. | :06:05. | |
Absolutely. But if you delve into the details, you will find there is | :06:06. | :06:12. | |
not a risk. China will still need to offset infrastructure targets and | :06:13. | :06:18. | |
infrastructure spending. For a while, Austria the's mining should | :06:19. | :06:27. | |
not be too worried. -- Australia's. Emergency relief is on its way to | :06:28. | :06:30. | |
drought hit farmers in the eastern part of Australia, with many forced | :06:31. | :06:37. | |
to sell or slaughter cattle. It is not only inflicting a financial | :06:38. | :06:43. | |
toll. There is a mounting psychological cost. This film | :06:44. | :06:48. | |
includes scenes that some viewers may find upsetting. | :06:49. | :06:57. | |
They pray for rain in these parts. This is traditionally some of | :06:58. | :07:00. | |
Australia's as farming country. But some of the land is barren. The | :07:01. | :07:06. | |
drought is the worst in living memory. Many waterholes have dried | :07:07. | :07:16. | |
up. Cops have failed. Livestock sold off to make ends meet. For many | :07:17. | :07:27. | |
farmers like as a struggle. In normal times, this would be three | :07:28. | :07:32. | |
quarters full. People cannot find a way forward. They become very | :07:33. | :07:39. | |
depressed. Some people take that next step, that final step. It has | :07:40. | :07:45. | |
been more than a year that this corner had significant rainfall. The | :07:46. | :07:51. | |
ground are turning to dust. Once upon a time this would have been | :07:52. | :07:56. | |
full of water. Debt and depression Mt. There is still hope that the | :07:57. | :08:00. | |
drought will be short lived. For some, they wonder how long they can | :08:01. | :08:07. | |
survive. To keep land viable, many farmers are being forced to sell the | :08:08. | :08:13. | |
prize cattle. In the New South Wales city, the saleyards has been awash | :08:14. | :08:18. | |
with livestock. There is no restocking interest. Nobody is | :08:19. | :08:23. | |
buying stock to put back on properties. If the couple are not | :08:24. | :08:27. | |
good enough to go to a feedlot or abattoir, the price is low. -- | :08:28. | :08:36. | |
cattle. The drought shows no sign of easing its grip. Not much rain is | :08:37. | :08:43. | |
forecast for autumn. This man has sold a quarter of his beef herd. 30% | :08:44. | :08:53. | |
of the income is gone. We have got to try and make that up. I do not | :08:54. | :08:58. | |
see how we can do that. It is a real concern. You worry about where you | :08:59. | :09:05. | |
are going to go. Drought relief worth more than to read and $85 | :09:06. | :09:10. | |
million has been approved by the Australian government. -- 280 $5 | :09:11. | :09:16. | |
million. This drought is testing the community like never before. | :09:17. | :09:24. | |
In other business News making headlines, Japan is considering | :09:25. | :09:35. | |
taxing bit coin. It follows the collapse of an exchange, which the | :09:36. | :09:39. | |
government is still trying to explain. It is at one point the | :09:40. | :09:44. | |
largest exchange and filed for bankruptcy protection last week. It | :09:45. | :09:50. | |
said it may have lost some 850,000 that coins to hackers. A class | :09:51. | :10:01. | |
action suit is being considered. Let us take a look at the Asian | :10:02. | :10:05. | |
markets. Most of them are positive territory. US stocks rallied | :10:06. | :10:12. | |
overnight as concerns about the confrontation between Russia and the | :10:13. | :10:19. | |
Ukraine has eased. With the Congress reiterating that growth this year | :10:20. | :10:25. | |
will be at 7.5%. Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Australia | :10:26. | :10:31. | |
all in the positive. Thank you for investing your time with us. Goodbye | :10:32. | :10:40. | |
for now. Here are the headlines: It has been | :10:41. | :10:48. | |
a day of danger and diplomacy in Ukraine. Russian forces | :10:49. | :10:49. |