05/02/2016 BBC Business Live

As the Zika virus spreads across the Americas there are now

growing concerns about its impact on tourism, and for a country

like Brazil it couldn't come at a worse time.

Live from London, that's our top story.

The Brazilian President has declared war on the deadly Zika virus,

but with just six months to go until the Rio Olympics will it be

enough to protect the country's tourism industry?

Also in the programme: The world's most hated man,

Martin Shkreli, faces lawmakers in America to defend raising

And this is how European shares have opened ahead of that closely watched

And we'll get the inside track on the week in tech including Google

overtaking Apple to become the world's most valuable company

and Microsoft buying British tech firm SwiftKey.

And as a new report says top London lawyers can charge ?1,000 an hour,

the highest ever recorded, we want to know, how much

Today marks six months until the opening ceremony

of the Rio Olympics, but the event threatens to be

overshadowed by the spread of the Zika virus, now present

in 20 countries and expected to spread further.

As well as the health risks, the virus could also wipe out any

economic benefit that many in Brazil were counting on the Games to bring.

Tourism linked to the Olympic Games is predicted to add around

$23 billion to the Brazilian economy this year.

Similar outbreaks have taken devastating tolls

In 2003 the spread of the Sars virus led to a 20% fall in tourism

If Brazil was hit in the same way, the economy could miss out

The Brazilian government says there's not yet evidence of people

cancelling their trips but US based United Airlines are already offering

full refunds to passengers who are booked to travel

Geraint Johnes, Professor of Economics at Lancaster University

I want to talk about the Brazilian economy generally but let us touch

on tourism. There is no doubt, it is inevitable, Brazil is going to take

a hit with people cancelling. There are two important uncertainties. We

do not know how people's behaviour will respond to the outbreak. You

mentioned SARS earlier. There was a decline of 20% in two days to the

affected countries at the time of SARS and if something similar

happens to Brazil which is a major tourist destination with the

Olympics coming up then the economy would take a major head getting on

for $15 billion. It is not clear people will behave in the same way

as with SARS. This is something that has a major effect, serious effect,

but only in a relatively small group of people, pregnant women. Only a

relatively small group are pregnant at any given time. For most people

the infection leads to mild symptoms so it is not clear how people's

behaviour will respond. The second thing we are uncertain about is how

long the outbreak will last. If it is dealt with very quickly then the

effects might be minor but if it lasts a year or so in the economic

impacts will be greater. It is also fair to say that even before there's

Zika outbreak, this is unlike economy that was in turmoil facing

possibly its worst recession in a century and its budget deficit is

around $151 billion, more than 10% of its GDP, and if you look at

Greece in 2009 its deficit was 15% of its GDP and that was just before

it needed a bailout. Yes. Recession has hit Brazil badly. Last year

economic death, growth was -3% and to date is predicted to be -1.2%. If

the head turned out to be similar to SARS then it could knock another 2%

of the growth rate. We appreciate that. Thank you for joining us.

Martin Shkreli, the former head of Turing Pharmaceuticals,

laughed off questions at a US congressional hearing

on the company's drug pricing policy.

He later took to Twitter to call committee members imbeciles.

Congress is investigating Turing's 5,000% price increase of a drug,

Daraprim, used by many Aids patients.

Shares in Mattel, the maker of Barbie dolls, jumped 8%

on Thursday following reports it discussed a merger with rival

Hasbro, which makes the board game Monopoly and the latest Star Wars

action figures, was first approached by Mattel back in 1996,

but the two sides failed to reach an agreement.

In 2014, Lego overtook Mattel to become the world's largest

Toyota says profit came in at just over $6 billion in the three

Earnings were down by 5% on the previous year

But the world's biggest car maker did raise its full year forecast

for the US, thanks to stronger demand.

On the website, Russia having to sell off some of its family silver,

and the Russian economy minister has confirmed states sales, the

privatisation programme to be approved within days.

The parallels between Russia and Saudi Arabia, both countries wanting

to raise money, big questions about who would want to be involved and

the security of that investment. There's the potential for newly

privatised firms to be national eyes to?

Oil prices. Saudi Arabia and Russia have been dipping into their

sovereign oil funds. Their savings pot.

Growth in South East Asia's largest economy, Indonesia,

picked up speed in the fourth quarter, but full-year growth

was still the slowest since the global financial crisis.

It also marks the fifth consecutive slow down.

Ali Moore has the details in our Asia Business Hub in Singapore.

I do not remember how to say happy Chinese new year. I know you are not

Chinese, but I thought I would say that. Indonesia has been having a

tough time getting momentum into its economy partly because of the

slowdown in China which is affecting everyone, that is a key trading

partner, and the crash in commodity prices. Growth last year was the

slowest since the global financial crisis. Lower than what the

president has promised. The pick-up in the last quarter to 5% could be

significant. Driven by higher public spending and optimists arguing that

is good news because the president might finally be getting some of the

reforms through and unclogging much-needed infrastructure

investment. It is too early to say whether the momentum is going to

hold. We will have to see what happens in the current quarter.

Happy Chinese new year to you. It's been another difficult week

for European markets - the first week of February trying,

but failing, to shake off Those worries of a slowing world

economy, weak inflation and relatively

disappointing earnings. Oil prices are starting to creep

back up, but at the same time, we've had more downbeat growth

forecasts from central banks. The latest, the Bank

of England yesterday, downgrading UK growth forecasts

from 2.5% to 2.2% this year. We will discuss that in a moment.

What will be making the news on Wall Street? After weak data on US

economic growth, all eyes will be on January's job report. It will play a

large part of the Federal Reserve's decision-making. Analysts predict

job growth slowed in January. A lot of that is down to the fact that the

manufacturing sector continues to shed jobs. January is traditionally

slow for hiring and unemployment is expected to remain at a seven and a

half year low and wages are expected to have grown modestly. The trade

deficit is expected to be reported to have had little change.

Joining us is Jane Sydenham, investment director

It is that time again. It feels like four years, every single month we

have had this incredible focus on what the US jobs number is going to

be. When do we get... Unemployment has come down... When do we shift

our focus and look for something else? We are nearly at the natural

rate of unemployment. That is the natural expectation for unemployment

regardless of what the economy is doing. We're probably going to be

focusing on wage growth going forward. It is going to be about

wage growth than the earnings of companies and weather at the

consumer is spending, whether the service sector caddies on doing well

because manufacturing is slowing so it is about the service sector and

wage growth so slightly different. The Bank of England downgrading

growth forecasts for the UK not wholly unexpected and blaming all

the same sorts of things but there was a lot of criticism of forward

guidance. Mark Carney trying to tell us what the bank was thinking that

he keeps changing his tune. Yes, they must be regretting the use of

that phrase. They are reacting to what is going on as events changed.

Having said that signal and manage expectations that we can tell you

what is going to happen it is uncomfortable. It is. You are going

to take us through the papers later. Central bankers must communicating,

I do not think that, I think they are dealing with the changing time.

They are having to react as they go but they are setting up different

expectations and that is what people are angry about.

Our technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones will take us

through the biggest stories in the tech world this week,

including why Microsoft were so keen to part with a quarter of a billion

dollars for the British firm SwiftKey.

You're with Business Live from BBC News.

Could the great British breakfast be under threat?

Pig farmers in the UK seem set for a difficult year,

with the price of pork at an eight year low.

It's feared that many producers could go out of business.

Do you have food on your feet? Who knew that my feet were so tasty?

There is nothing on these apart from my wellies. 100,000 pigs reared here

every year. These guys are 14 weeks old and went they get to 20 weeks

they will sell them for about ?100 on average per pig. Prices have

fallen from ?125 down to ?100 which means they are losing ?10 on every

pig they cell. Farmers are losing money because of various things. As

we talk about with commodities, these guys are commodities, and

there is a lot of oversupply, we are not eating as much pot. -- pork. We

are not selling as much pork because of the ban on exports. Some pork

coming in from Europe and because of the strong pound it means the picks

here are pretty expensive and that means pressure on the industry and

farmers are concerned about what it is going to mean for the industry. I

have never seen such inquisitive animals in my life. I am going to

try to escape them. Do they bite?

Real pressure on the industry. I will see you later.

I have never heard quite so many sound effects.

We are not allowed to talk about pigs as commodities.

What about the Danish? Pork in Denmark is big.

We will find out soon. With only six months

to go until the Olympics, the Brazilian President Dilma

Rousseff has declared war on mosquitoes responsible

for spreading the Zika virus in a recorded TV

message to the nation. There are now increasing fears

that the virus could devastate the country's tourism industry,

which was expecting a big boost And now let's get the inside track

on some of the tech biggest tech A week where Google overtook Amazon

as the world's largest firm, Microsoft snapped up British tech

firm Swiftkey and Shares in the camera maker GoPro slumped

19% after reporting losses That should not have said Amazon, it

should have said Apple! Did you have one of those GoPro things?

No, but their shares were down 19%. Our technology correspondent

Rory Cellan-Jones is here. Good morning, Rory, welcome to the

madhouse. I should be wearing a GoPro struck my head. I have run a

five kilometre race with a GoPro struck to my head. Goodness knows

what you would record in this studio! Things that should be off as

state arts -- stay off our. Now Google and Apple, vying for the top

spot? After Apple's somewhat disappointing results last week,

their shares have dipped, Google, now renamed Alphabet, came out with

their results. They split off the other stuff from the main stuff.

Google shares went up. The market capitalisation of Google overtook

that of Apple, which is extraordinary, because Apple still

make small profit in a quarter than Google makes in a year. So what the

market was effectively saying is it is the growth story of Apple, it is

over, the growth story as Google has a long way to go and they will

overtake each other. But overnight, Google shares are down again and

Apple is back in the lead. Does it really matter? We talk about it

being the world's largest company, the truth is they are both hugely

successful organisations and it is all based on perception? There is a

great quotes, I think it is from Warren Buffett, that the market is

in the short term a voting machine and in the long term, a weighing

machine. The market gets things right in the long term, in the short

term it is driven by emotion. Sometimes those emotions go in the

wrong direction. Talking about this UK firm, Swiftkey, known for a

predict with keyboard? They make a little keyboard. They have brilliant

technology behind them. They are founded by very clever young

scientists from Cambridge University, they are using a lot of

artificial intelligence techniques. Their technology was used to upgrade

Professor Stephen Hawking's technology, so that when he

communicates it can be done quicker. Microsoft, one of the big firms

looking at these artificial intelligence research in the UK,

they snap them up. We did not get the price that we were told it was a

graduate and $50 million, for a firm that probably makes very tiny

amounts of revenue at the moment. There is a great story about the

guys who founded this, one cashed out pretty early in return for a

bike? It is a great story. As ever, slightly exaggerated. The firm was

founded in around 2008 by three guys, two months in, who knows where

a company will start to go, this guy cashed out and got a bike in

exchange, he was quoted this week as saying, maybe it wasn't my best

decision. In about 30 seconds, what are GoPro doing wrong? Not meeting

market expectations. Market expectations were completely daft. A

little maker of action cameras, great little cameras, but there are

much cheaper ones coming out of China now. The company was priced as

if it was growth stock, I always thought there would be a limit to

the number of crazy geek like me who wants to strap onto their heads, so

it has been pro then! -- crazy people like me. Have a good weekend.

It's estimated that tens of billions of dollars a year are gambled

However, a string of match fixing scandals have damaged the reputation

of Indian sport - and pressure is growing to legalise sports

betting to try and weed out corruption.

It is nearly race time. As these jockeys lead their horses to the

track, activity in the betting hall is picking up, too. Gambling is a

big part of the day for many racegoers. Horse racing is the only

sport where betting in India is legal. You will find licensed

bookmakers at racecourses like this at accepting bets from punters. This

has been held up as an example of how gambling can be legalised across

sports here. For now, though, with most gambling

outlawed, the underground sports betting market is thriving. Tens of

billions of dollars are thought to be staked every year, the bulk of

that on cricket. Bookmakers tend to take bets only from gamblers who

they know, to reduce the risk of being caught. Many punters who bring

those bookies to lay their bets say they would rather be able to gamble

out of the shadows. TRANSLATION: We all are scared of the police, that

is why I had to be really careful while placing my bet. I call only a

known bookie. If the police find stuff, they arrest people. I think

the Government should legalise betting, as so many do it. It may

still be India's greatest sport, but the credibility of Indian cricket

took a hit after a in the IPL.

There is a clamour to legalise betting. As well as making gambling

more transparent, it said it would bring in taxes and help restrict the

flow of so-called black money, cash not declared to the taxman.

Globally, online sports betting is booming. The Indian law is ambiguous

about its legality here. There are many more betting site is now,

allowing people to play for fun without risking money. Even if

sports gambling is legalised, those global firms will have to cater to

the legal audience -- to the Indian audience. Global legitimate

operators can come in and say, we will deliver a very strong, safe

product to the market. That would compete strongly with the black

market. As Indian sport leagues like football get more popular, interest

in betting is picking up. But for that to be done legally, they will

need Parliament to agree. That could be a difficult law to pass.

Let's take a quick look at what's been making the business news

The Washington Post reports that Martin Shkreli,

former head of Turing Pharmaceuticals, refused to answer

questions at a US congressional hearing on the company's

The FT reports on a study that says partners at top London law firms

are charging as much as ?1,000 an hour -

And Business Insider says that Apple's big expansion plan

for its European headquarters could be affected by a shortage

Jane Sydenham from Rathbones Investment Management

Let's get cracking. Let's start with Mr Martin Shkreli, calling the

congressional hearing and the people on that panel imbecile. He has got a

smug little look on his face. He was originally a hedge fund manager and

I think he is used to working out of the eye of the media. This is a

business that quite a lot of companies bought drugs, repurposed

and, that the prices up and sold them again, which is fine, but this

seems to be going to an extreme. It was picked up a Hillary Clinton last

summer. He is not the only one, there are others. I think it is the

extreme nature of the price increase causing difficulty. Looking at it

from his side, he says he is doing it because drug research costs a

lot, so you need to invest in the research to make sure new drugs are

coming in the pipeline. Here's trying to play off the health care

system in America, whereby providers can't negotiate the price of drugs.

He is saying, look, this market is not working, I am proving I can do

it, it is in need of reform. Some would say he has a point in that

respect? I think it probably highlight the need for reform,

actually. I think it will push the pace of change and will be a good

thing, it is just a rather extreme example. And the way in which he is

doing it as one of the issues. Let's talk lawyers. You are not married to

a lawyer? No, but I am beginning to regret my choice of career! 1000

quid an hour for some of the top partners! You had to speak with

glee! This is at the top end of the corporate litigation market -- and

you had to speak quickly! Legislation is much more

complicated, some of these cases are incredibly complicated. It is a lot

of money. It is stopping people from pursuing litigation because it is

out of the reach of most people, although you would not go to a top

London lawyer to defend a parking fine. It pushes up the cost

genetically. We will not have time for the next story.

This is like the Victorian age, employers are having to stop will --

start building property because that was not enough, and Apple are

expanding their operations. We have to go, thank you for coming

in, Jane. Thank you for watching. Goodbye.

Good morning. Quite mild for the next few days, but it will remain

very changeable. We have more clout and drain on the way. The main,

thick belt of cloud as this