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court on Friday the 27th. Those are the latest headlines from BBC World | :00:02. | :00:06. | |
News. Time now for the money news with Aaron and World Business | :00:06. | :00:16. | |
:00:16. | :00:24. | ||
Bad-tempered exchanges. Currency wars to top the agenda for G20 | :00:24. | :00:29. | |
finance chiefs when they meet in Moscow later today. Plus why a | :00:29. | :00:33. | |
recession in Europe is fuelling a labour unrest in South Africa. We | :00:33. | :00:43. | |
:00:43. | :00:49. | ||
take a look at the problems facing Welcome to the programme. A quick | :00:49. | :00:56. | |
look at the latest in the world of business and money. Looking at the | :00:56. | :01:00. | |
expected Eardley numbers from Anglo-American this morning later. | :01:00. | :01:05. | |
-- ugly numbers. Let's start with the G20, the leaders meet in Moscow | :01:05. | :01:09. | |
later and there's no doubt what will be topping the agenda. | :01:09. | :01:13. | |
Currency wars. Accusations have been flying that certain developed | :01:13. | :01:17. | |
economies have been competitively trying to devalue their currencies | :01:17. | :01:21. | |
to boost their exporters and also give their struggling economies a | :01:21. | :01:26. | |
bit of a leg up. Japan has been cast as the chief villain. It has | :01:26. | :01:32. | |
seen the end slump around 20% against major currencies since | :01:32. | :01:38. | |
November -- the yen. But as Rupert Wingfield Hayes reports from Tokyo, | :01:38. | :01:42. | |
many in Japan feel they are being singled out unfairly. | :01:42. | :01:46. | |
The dramatic fall in the value of the yen has been very good news | :01:46. | :01:52. | |
here, especially for Japanese carmakers. Big exporters like | :01:52. | :01:56. | |
Toyota, Nissan and master are all predicting much higher profits both | :01:56. | :02:01. | |
this year and next as the value of the yen slides towards 100 to the | :02:01. | :02:06. | |
US dollar -- Felipe Massa there. The fall of the yen is a direct | :02:06. | :02:11. | |
result of Shinzo Abe's promise to hugely increase monetary easing. In | :02:11. | :02:16. | |
simple terms he has pledged to force the Bank of Japan to keep | :02:16. | :02:20. | |
printing money until prices in Japan start rising by at least 2% a | :02:20. | :02:27. | |
year. The result has been a huge yen sell-off. Some, especially the | :02:27. | :02:31. | |
big US carmakers, are already complaining that Japan's | :02:31. | :02:36. | |
deliberately forcing down the value of its currency to make six exports | :02:36. | :02:40. | |
cheaper. But others are more sympathetic to Tokyo -- its exports. | :02:40. | :02:46. | |
They point out that since 2008, the US Federal Reserve, Bank of England | :02:46. | :02:49. | |
and European Central Bank have all been printing money even faster | :02:49. | :02:55. | |
than the Bank of Japan. Since the 2000 an aide Lehman collapse, Japan | :02:55. | :03:02. | |
has also suffered from having a so- called safe haven currency -- 2008. | :03:02. | :03:07. | |
From an average value of 115 to the US dollar the yen shot up hitting a | :03:08. | :03:13. | |
high of 76 to the dollar in 2011. By the end of last year Japanese | :03:13. | :03:18. | |
exports were shrinking fast and Japan was heading back into | :03:18. | :03:25. | |
recession. That, they are arguing, is good for no one. | :03:25. | :03:30. | |
Let's get more on this and go over to the Asia office. Great to see | :03:30. | :03:35. | |
you. Some may say the Japanese have a valid point because they are | :03:35. | :03:40. | |
saying, hang on... The Europeans and the United States and the Bank | :03:40. | :03:50. | |
:03:50. | :03:51. | ||
of England have all been printing money hand over fist. I guess the | :03:52. | :03:57. | |
Japanese yen has been very very strong for many years now, even | :03:57. | :04:03. | |
after that awful natural disaster that hit the country in March, 2011. | :04:03. | :04:07. | |
The Japanese yen remained very strong, uncomfortably strong, for | :04:07. | :04:13. | |
exporters then. They are the backbone of the Japanese economy. | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
Only since the most recent election was called in the middle of | :04:17. | :04:23. | |
November we started to see the Japanese yen weakening. Now the new | :04:23. | :04:27. | |
Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has been very vocal about printing more | :04:27. | :04:31. | |
Japanese yen and trying to set the inflation targets so that the | :04:31. | :04:36. | |
falling prices, known as deflation, will be tackled properly. Since | :04:36. | :04:41. | |
then we have seen the Japanese yen weakening almost 20%. While it is | :04:41. | :04:45. | |
quite a significant weakness that we have seen in recent months, you | :04:45. | :04:51. | |
can imagine people in Japan saying, "But we had to put up with a strong | :04:51. | :04:57. | |
Japanese yen for many years". Absolutely. How is it doing today? | :04:57. | :05:01. | |
Yesterday I was looking at the markets and the Nikkei closed down | :05:01. | :05:09. | |
1% because it had notched up a little bit in value? That's right. | :05:09. | :05:15. | |
The end today is trading at around 92. -- the yen. It has strengthened | :05:15. | :05:18. | |
quite a lot compared to Monday when the Japanese currency hit the | :05:18. | :05:27. | |
weakest level in almost three years, 94.47 yen against the US dollar. It | :05:27. | :05:32. | |
is all because of mixed messages we have been getting from various | :05:32. | :05:36. | |
officials. On Monday the reason the Japanese yen weakened was because | :05:36. | :05:41. | |
of a comment from a US Treasury official who said he supports | :05:41. | :05:45. | |
Japan's monetary policies and setting of inflation targets, but | :05:45. | :05:50. | |
then we got some confusing targets from the G7. In the end the group | :05:50. | :05:55. | |
had to clarify their statement, saying that they are concerned | :05:55. | :06:02. | |
about excessive moves and the Japanese yen will be in the | :06:02. | :06:07. | |
spotlight in Moscow at the G20 summit. The Japanese yen might get | :06:07. | :06:12. | |
a boost in terms of the new governor by keeping the value down. | :06:12. | :06:19. | |
This could go favourably to what the government wants to see. Indeed. | :06:19. | :06:29. | |
:06:29. | :06:29. | ||
The current governor was supposed to step down, he wasn't supposed to | :06:29. | :06:35. | |
step down until April. He announced that he will step down a few weeks | :06:36. | :06:41. | |
earlier before the term is up on 19th March. Now the government is | :06:41. | :06:47. | |
trying to come up with another governor. It seems like we will get | :06:47. | :06:51. | |
somebody who is in line with the Government's policy of printing | :06:51. | :06:54. | |
more money, setting inflation targets. It's quite likely that we | :06:54. | :07:00. | |
will get a new governor who is going to support the Government's | :07:00. | :07:05. | |
policies of monetary easing. glad you said his name because I | :07:05. | :07:10. | |
wasn't going to attempt it! Thank you for joining us. Talking about | :07:10. | :07:16. | |
the mining giant Anglo American. Their annual numbers are out later | :07:16. | :07:21. | |
and they will reveal profits plunged around 40% over the past | :07:21. | :07:26. | |
year. Times are getting harder for these mining companies. Why? | :07:26. | :07:32. | |
Demands for commodities are at a ten-year low. For Anglo-American, | :07:32. | :07:37. | |
by far the biggest worry is its platinum business in South Africa | :07:37. | :07:41. | |
where the downturn has been causing growing tensions with its workers. | :07:41. | :07:46. | |
Nigel Cassidy has this report. Parling Platinum into profit has | :07:46. | :07:56. | |
:07:56. | :07:57. | ||
become a struggle for Anglo American -- turning. Job losses | :07:57. | :08:05. | |
could reach 14,000. The company said it lost over 3500 since last | :08:05. | :08:09. | |
summer. With 80% of the world's proven reserves, South Africa has | :08:09. | :08:16. | |
borne the brunt of the industry downturn. So far talks with workers | :08:16. | :08:21. | |
and the ruling African National Congress have failed to quell the | :08:21. | :08:24. | |
resistance. Unions in Rustenburg near Johannesburg are prepared for | :08:24. | :08:30. | |
what they described as the mother of all strikes. Wildcat action has | :08:30. | :08:34. | |
already put the group into the red. It's a grim reminder of the | :08:34. | :08:39. | |
violence in the region that killed over 50 last year. And all this, | :08:39. | :08:43. | |
say analysts, while producers struggle to bring costs and | :08:43. | :08:53. | |
:08:53. | :09:06. | ||
supplied -- supply in line. That has yet to be arranged with the | :09:06. | :09:10. | |
Ministry in South Africa to see how they would go about doing that. | :09:10. | :09:14. | |
for future demands, one of the common uses for platinum is in car | :09:15. | :09:21. | |
catalytic converters. This leaves producers still exposed to the | :09:21. | :09:25. | |
economic crisis in Europe and hoping prices recover in line with | :09:25. | :09:32. | |
any rise in global demand. Let's take a look at the markets in | :09:32. | :09:36. | |
the Asian region. It is not an Asian story driving these markets | :09:36. | :09:41. | |
lower. It is the same old European story. In particular those | :09:41. | :09:45. |