04/10/2012 World Business Report

Hello and welcome to World Business Report. Jobs, taxes, healthcare and

the deficit. The economic battleground is laid out in the

battle for the White House. Japan's central bank is under

pressure. The waiting game. Will Spain ask

for help from the European Central Bank? Mario Draghi and his team

The European Central Bank chief is likely to resist calls to cut

interest rates today. The bank is holding its monthly meeting in

Slavonia, amid signs the economic slump is deepening. But inflation

is running well above target. That is limiting the ability to cut

borrowing costs from the already record low of 0.75%. Now, he plans

to support Spain 2 Unlimited bond buying is also in limbo. -- the

plans. They will be plenty of fresh air

for the ECB members at this conference centre just outside the

Slovenian capital. But fresh moves to Tain borrowing costs for the

likes of Spain have look unlikely this month. Unemployment and

business prospects are poor in much of the eurozone and there are

plenty of arguments for Mario Draghi to bring rates down below

the current 0.75%. But most of the markets believe he will hold off

moving one of the last policy levers available. With Greece's

next bail-out in the balance and Spain's continued reluctance --

reluctance to ask for help, the ECB is also in limbo. Germany's

criticism and support for southern Europe has not helped. But it is

the issue of European bonds that this adviser it says would be

opposed, not BCB support. When the time comes. The German government

has strict views on socialising European debt. -- the ECB. They

will not prevent European bonds coming up. So Germany would

actually help the other countries. It may allow the ECB to be more

flexible and engage in some interventions. Meanwhile, the ECB

may only repeat that while it is unable to make unlimited bond

buyers, countries must ask and then meet the conditions.

Once again, financial markets are watching central banks today. In

Japan, the pressure is on the central bank to boost the economy

with the new finance and economy ministers saying it needs to be

more proactive. Let's go to Singapore now and drawing our

correspondent. Last month when they met, they announced the move. --

and join. It was a surprise move. The new

finance minister and economy Policy Minister have been quite focal. He

has been saying the Bank of Japan should do more in trying to tackle

the issue of this strong currency as well as the weak economy. He

says Japan should start buying foreign bonds in order to weaken

the value of the Japanese yen, but as we have been reporting the yen

has been hurting. Even though the Bank of Japan has been pouring a

lot of money into the economy and has kept interest rates very low,

it has not really worked to help the economy. Factory owners all say

that cheap loans are great but it does not mean anything if they

don't have enough businesses to borrow the money for. The strong

yen is definitely the biggest headache that they currently have.

Japan's central bank is a supposedly independent from global

pressures. We will see what it decides to do later this week. If

it decides to buy foreign bonds, the danger is that other central

banks could do the same and it could become a battle between

different central banks, on how to weaken their own economies.

Thank you. That gives you a sense as to the central bank action today,

which is very much the focus of financial markets. But let's not

ignore the big debate that took place overnight. It was the first

face to face debate of the US presidential battle. The territory

up for grabs, domestic policy. There was no bigger domestic issue

than the state of the economy. The conundrum, however, to restore

growth and tackle stubborn unemployment and bring the deficit

under control. President Obama became -- came under heavy attack

over his economic record. We go to New York and join our correspondent.

There was a lot of back and forth and a lot of time dedicated to

taxes? Yes. Not the sexiest of subjects but a lot of time was

spent going back and forth on this very issue. President Obama has

been trying in this campaign, and this evening, to betraying it from

me as somebody who would give tax cuts to the wealthy and put them up

for the middle class. These are claims Mitt Romney strongly denied.

The two got into a back and forth over this topic. Who mac for 18

months, he has been running on this. -- for 18 months. Now, he says his

idea is, never mind. The fact is, if you are lowering the rates the

way you describe, it is not possible to come up with enough

deductions that the only effect high-income individuals to avoid

either raising the deficit or burden in the middle class. It is

enough. It is arithmetic. -- burdening. It will be interesting

to see what the American public take from that. Listening to him,

it was interesting because from their answers, you could hear the

clear differences in their ideology. Yes. It has been something that

they have hinted at in the past, this choice, as President Obama

characterised it, between Mitt Romney advocating a top-down

economy, where the wealthiest in society are helped. But Mitt Romney

has a different view. The path we have been on has been unsuccessful.

The President's view is similar to that which we hit -- that which he

had four is a good. The bigger government, taxing more, they are

regulating all. That is not the right answer. We need to restore

vitality. The choice for voters is between a government that allocates

all of the assets or whether you think it should be the role of the

free market. Thank you. We will discuss this even more when we look

at the newspapers. Of course the debate is not in the papers but we

will look at some of the reaction elsewhere. Shares at Hewlett-

Packard have fallen to their lowest in a decade. Forecasts were lower-

than-expected for next year. The D Day boss has warned investors it

will take longer to write this ship than any of us would have liked. --

eBay. India's Aviation regulator will submit a report about

Kingfisher Airlines. They called it a complete paralysis of operations.

India's number two airline one year ago has huge depth and has not paid

staff for some two months. -- debts. In the market, central banks -- the

story is about what central banks will or will not do. Currencies are

very much on the move. The yen is week ahead of the two a meeting.