10/11/2015 Asia Business Report

Now on BBC News all the latest business news live from Singapore.

Deep concern over China's slowing economy leads to another cut in the

forecast for global growth. And on the go, the Greenway. Will

environmentally friendly scooters catch on in Taiwan -- green way?

Good morning. Glad you could join us for this Tuesday edition of Asia

Business Report. Concerns about the state of the global economy show no

signs of coming down. The organisation for economic

corporation and development, also known as the OECD, has cut its

global forecast down from 3%. It describes the slowdown in global

trade is deeply concerning and the worries have been fuelled by Musa

Vadeweghe and which shows China's growth has fallen for a record third

Quarter. We will get more information including the consumer

price index which is the main measure of consumer crisis. The PPI

has fallen for more than four months is -- straight. I spoke to an

investor in Hong Kong and asked whether these figures would change

going forward? China is still a major exporter and if the rest of

the global economy has slowed down, that is going to impact them. The

PPI number today will be important to see whether the factory prices

are still seeing deflation, because that will put more pressure on the

global economy if prices continued to fall. The real hope here is that

we see some stable as they should in that number and that we see a little

bit of inflation coming back in, or at least inflation stays around at

1.5 level. What about the stimulus measures and the six interest rate

cuts over the past year? When will this have a substantial impact on

the Chinese economy? To a degree, it probably already has. Certainly we

have seen a pickup in the property sector in China, which is a big

driver for them because if they continue to or start to rebuild at

the same level they were, and we see people starting to buy apartment

again in the same sort of quantities, those people are going

to create domestic demand. Wanting to purchase sofas and televisions

and fridges to fill those apartments. And it means China's

consumption of resources from overseas will also increase. What

about recovery in the property sector leading to another problem in

the real estate sector, which also caused this economy to slow down?

There is always the risk. But the government in Beijing has been very

careful and continues to be very careful about how to apply

stimulus. The Lehman Brothers stepped in and build a more roads

and bridges and that helped in the short term, but they need long-term

relief. What they are more concerned about now is making sure the steps

they take will create a good foundation for steady growth moving

forward. We just have the latest numbers from China. Particularly the

consumer price index. Inflation is now at 1.3% and that is slower than

expected. It -- the production price index was also lower than expected

and this is having an impact on the regional markets. The Nikkei is down

by .7% and the index in Sydney games back 1%. On Wall Street, the down

Jones and the NASDAQ -- Dow Jones, are also quaking under these jittery

reports and there are new rules to stop banks from becoming too big to

fail. This is a direct response to the 2008 financial crisis when

taxpayers had to a load collapsing banks. We will explain what is

behind the rules and why some bankers are worried. Regulators are

basically saying that by making these banks raise a whole lot of

capital to always have on hand, there would basically be a buffer so

that if they fail, it will create mayhem and send the shockwaves we

saw in 2008 through the global system. A real plan to wind them

down. They're hoping this could be enforced by 2022 although if you

look at China and the emerging markets, they have been given later

until 2028. There is already a lot of talk about additional rules that

are still needed to limit risky behaviour. Possibly rules on banker

bonuses. Because misconduct like trying to break the interest rates

or currency markets, that still does put the entire system at risk.

India's old and over crowded railways are about to get a major

overhaul. General Electric has won a $2.6 billion contract to build 1000

new diesel trains for the Indian government. As part of the deal,

they will invest in new lands and warehouses in India. The owner of

India's budget carrier, IndiGo is listing it on the stock exchange. It

is their biggest listing in three years. The airline has benefited

from the country's air travel boom. Staying with India, shops there are

starting to receive their first deliveries of maggi noodles after

the products were withdrawn from a health scare. The brand contain

dangerously high levels of lead which is something the manufacturer

strongly denies. But they have now been found to be safe. We spoke to

Nestle India's managing director. It has definitely had an impact in

terms of the overall financial results and the performance of the

company. But for me, what is even more telling is the impact it has

had on a lot of other Indians who were eking out there living. The

human impact of the company and its system has been possibly much larger

than the impact on the books of the company. For me, that is the most

painful part of this journey. But why do you think the results of your

tests were so different from the government test results and do you

think you have been treated unfairly? I don't like to use the

term unfair, but what has really happened, and what is been our point

of view, was the fact that the analysis, and lead was an example,

was being done in laboratories that had not been accredited, which means

that they don't have three things. They don't have the infrastructure

or they don't have the protocol for testing, or they don't have

qualified people who carry out the tests. As a consequence, you could

end up with results that were highly unreliable. Many people in Asia rely

on scooters to get around. Cheaper than a car, handy in heavy traffic.

They are a popular form of transport and one place where the streets are

filled with them is Taiwan. It is now trying to encourage more

environmentally friendly machines. Now we go to our correspondent. Rush

hour in Taiwan. The land of the scooter. It has more motorbikes per

capita than anywhere else in the world. Taiwan is a small island but

it accounts for nearly 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. And

pollution from scooters as a part of that. This year the government

increased subsidies to encourage the millions of people who drive

gasoline powered scooters to switch to electric scooters. Gas scooters

are generally cheaper, faster and more convenient and gas stations are

everywhere. Most electric scooters require owners to charge the

battery. But not this one. Riders simply swap used batteries for fully

charged once at kiosks like this one. TRANSLATION: I have long wanted

a electric scooter but they were too slow and require charging. I live on

a second-floor, I can do that. But this one is as powerful as a gas

scooter. Still, the company has only sold about 1700 scooters to date. So

it recently cut its prices, making them cheaper than gas motorbikes. I

can only imagine what it will be like ten years from now if we do a

great job, how our lives can be a lot better and cities could be a lot

cleaner. And in Taiwan, there is clear government support.

TRANSLATION: It is hard to change people's habits but by offering

subsidies and making better electric scooters, we hope more people will

purchase them. As for Gogoro, it is working hard to boost sales with

some slick marketing. If the company and Taiwan succeed, it could inspire

other countries in the region to follow suit. And before we go, let's

recap China's latest economic reports. More disappointing data,

especially for the PPI. Down 5.9% which is worse than expected. You

also have the CPI which came in at 1.3%. This is currently impacting

regional markets at this hour. Thank you for investing your time with

us. Goodbye for now. The World Anti-Doping Authority

calls for Russian athletes to be suspended from international

competition over doping accusations.