24/01/2012 World Business Report

parse up on Greece and the ILO on unemployment. -- the pressure piles

up. It is time for World Business Report.

Welcome. The headlines: The head of the Eurogroup ups the ante by

saying the Greek debt programme is off track because -- and needs a

deal. One in three workers worldwide are either unemployed or

living in poverty. The ILO lays down the challenge for the global

economy to create 600 million jobs in a decade. Japan warns it will

miss its goal to reduce its massive debt burden, the biggest in the

The European Union has piled the pressure on Greece by saying it

needs to reach a deal with his private creditors within days. This

is crucial if Greece is to receive a second Euro rescue plan and avoid

a default. Trying to solve the debt crisis remains higher on the agenda

for the 17th eurozone finance ministers who are in Brussels and

meet again later today. Here is what the President of the Eurogroup

hat to say in the early hours of this morning ahead of the meeting.

-- had to say. We reviewed the process of the consultations

between the Greek government and the creditor groups. There were

discussions about the new adjustment programme. We welcomed

the increase convergence and asked the Greek government to reach in

the next few days a common understanding of the main terms and

conditions of the offer. I am joined by a managing director

of a year -- and economic think that. This is all very exhausting.

They have been discussing this for days. It is alarming. The important

decisions being made are being made by affect heat leaders in the early

hours of the morning. Absolutely. - - by tired leaders. In terms of the

negotiations about debt, obviously the detail is being grappled with.

Interest rates on the bond swaps... We have talked about this for a

long time. You would have thought that they would have nailed this

down, wouldn't you? Absolutely. The interesting thing is that whichever

rate unfolds, decision time is looming large. Hopefully we will

not have to talk about this for months to come. In one way or the

other it will get resolved. Between the two options, having a proper

deal to the extent that it is voluntary, or even having an ad hoc

restructuring of Greek debt, between them, this is not going to

have a very major impact on the eurozone crisis. That is primarily

because the bigger problems lie in Spain and Italy. Greece has to some

extent become a sideshow. The head of the Eurogroup just said that the

programme is off-track. What does he mean? Greece is not meeting its

deficit programme targets. It is not meeting the other targets that

the IMF and the European Union has set it in terms of structural

reform. There are two tracks. One is in negotiation with the private

bondholders. The other is the economic programme which the EU and

the IMF are funding. Right now neither of them looks to be in

great shape. We have delivered there. Thank you. -- we have to

leave it. We are keeping our Lionel of those negotiations in Brussels

and Athens. Hungary's controversial Prime

Minister will try to rebuild bridges today when he meets the

President of the European Commission. The talks will focus on

whether Budapest can qualify for a badly needed line of up to $25

billion. -- the loan. The commission says Hungary must

reconsider new rules. So Saudi Arabia's Cabinet says it

will approve efforts to develop oil and gas co-operation with China.

This follows a visit by the Chinese Prime Minister to the world's

biggest exporter to oil. During the visit the Chinese Prime Minister

pressed Saudi Arabia to open its markets to Chinese Investment.

The US has added another Iranian bank to its list of sanctions.

Iran's third biggest bank has been blacklisted for providing financial

services to Iranian banks and companies that are under

international sanctions for their involvement in the country's

nuclear programme. The world is facing an urgent

challenge and needs to create 600 million jobs to generate growth and

maintain social cohesion. That is according to the International

Labour Organisation, which says there are 27 million more

unemployed workers and at the start of the global economic crisis. --

than that. It says better jobs need to be great Kate -- need to be

created for those living be up -- living below the poverty line.

Let's speak to director of the ILO's analysis department. Thank

you for being on the programme. The unemployment picture globally is

worrying. Tell us more about the report. The most worrying thing is

the fact that 27 million jobs... The worrying thing is despite the

stimulus, which has managed to tread water and just keep up with

the rate of growth of the labour force, we have not managed to

reduce the deficit created by the crisis of 27 million jobs. We have

a serious problem of growth and employment. It seemed like the

stimulus was going to raise growth and did so. It raised jobs by a

little bit just to keep up with the labour force. The problem is, the

backlog relax -- the backlog remains. And growth has dipped

again now. We worry about his best but be. Then there is the longer

term challenge over the next decade. Every year, approximately 40

million people are added to the lambda force demographic. -- the

labour force. 40 million people every year for another decade is

400 million. We have a backlog of 200 million. That is 600 million.

We have to leave it there. We could discuss that a lot further. But we

have to move on. This story about Japan. It is

warning it will miss its goals to reduce its debt mountain, the

biggest in the world, even if it doubles the nation's sales tax.

Rico Hizon is in Singapore. What is happening? You have the Prime

Minister and his party wanting to raise the sales tax that 8% in

about two years. And then to 10% in three years. The Cabinet Office

this doubt it will be enough to contain the massive debt. As a

result you have the government probably missing its goal of

balancing the budget by 2020. They stressed that further fiscal

improvements would be necessary to meet the goal in about eight years.

Measures to raise the sales tax are still just plans. Many lawmakers

oppose the increase -- increase. Thank you very much. Very much.

Let's look at the markets quickly. Asia. A little bit of optimism

there. Japan and Taiwan are slightly higher. The euro today

falling. As far as Europe is concerned, bookies are mixed about

how the trading day will begin given the stalemate, or lack of

progress seen in a Europe at the moment. That's all from me on World