08/12/2015 World Business Report

Those are the latest headlines from BBC World News.

Now for the latest financial news, with Sally and

Exports and imports both fell in November, as consumers fail to

What can the government do now to boost domestic demand?

Overcapacity and slowing global trade results in a giant merger

Also in the programme: Revised figures from Japan

China has released its latest set of trade numbers.

Both exports and imports declined in November, compared with

The big question now is whether or not the cooling economy

will face a hard or soft landing in the coming months and years.

Chinese trade last year was worth $4.3 trillion

making it the world's largest trader, a title it took

Those figures disguise a big problem though.

China saw imports drop for a record 13th month in a row

in November, down 8.7% on the same time a year before.

The falling import numbers suggest domestic demand is not as strong

And, as you can see here, the rate of Chinese growth has been

coming down from the heady heights of over 12% in 2010 to less than 7%

The Chinese government is attempting to shift the economy to one that is

fuelled by consumer demand as seen in the west.

-- West. However, these figures demonstrate this is not

So, is China now running out of options to prevent a hard landing?

Our corrrespondent in Beijing is Celia Hatton.

Nice to see you. Give us a bit more detail on the November numbers. What

do they tell us? The numbers tell us it is basically a continuation in

the pattern that we have been seeing for the past year. A continued

decline in the numbers. It should be said that these numbers weren't as

low as economists had feared, although it depends on whether you

take these numbers at face value. Some analysts believe the real

number is are couple of percentage points lower than reported by the

Chinese government. So there is some worry that these numbers continue to

be dropping. Some analyst reports that I read today predict that these

numbers will continue to drop for perhaps the next 18 months. What

will the government do next? It has tried many things, like interest

rate cuts, various other measures. Some things have been successful,

like cutting taxes on the purchasing of cars. That was quite a spike in

car sales in November. Absolutely. So the government cut taxes by half

on small automobiles and that led to an 18% boost in sales in November.

So, some believe that the government will continue to participate in

these tax cuts. Of course we've also seen interest rate cuts and we have

seen six so by this year and some are predicting who will see another

one later this month. And of course there is expected to be more

stimulus spending by the government. This is a bit of a double-edged

sword. Local governments in China have gotten themselves into some hot

water in the past I spending money on projects that are ill-advised and

defended government, local governments, get into this terrible

cycle of bad loans, for example. So, stimulus spending is all worry

semitone. What they will continue to try to boost the economy. -- is

worrisome in China. It will wait for the economy to shift its focus from

exports and manufacturing towards a more domestic demand. What is

sentiment like? We talk about how China is slowing, but what do the

Chinese people feel? It is all about confidence about the future, many

economists argue, in terms of viewing future growth? Well, many

people in China are concerned. They see the same numbers that we see.

They see that manufacturing is slow, they see continued concerns over

paying for things like healthcare and education. On continuing trend

is China is that saving rates are very high. Chinese people are

traditionally saving much more than people in Western countries. But

that's because many people are concerned that might not have the

government to help them with in-flight retirement and healthcare

in the future. People are concerned, especially when it comes to thing

for graduate employment and making sure young people can find jobs.

Thank you so much. Also illustrating the other story in the day's news,

regarding the problem with smog. We will talk about that later.

Internet firms including the likes of Google and Amazon,

operating in the EU, will be forced to report serious security breaches

According to the Reuters news agency, EU countries and lawmakers

have agreed reporting obligations for

companies in critical sectors such as transport, energy and finance.

The price of oil has fallen to its lowest level since 2009 as global

The price of West Texas crude sank to $37.65 a barrel,

a drop of 5.8%, while Brent Crude fell 5.3% to $40.73 a barrel.

The slumping price comes as OPEC, a group of

the largest oil producing nations, refused to cut oil production.

Again, something we will comment on when we come to the papers. Now

let's talk about a big merger on the cards in a global shipping industry.

In a $2.4 billion deal, France's CMA CGM has agreed to buy

the Singapore-based Neptune Orient Lines.

If it gets the nod from regulators it could be the biggest deal

in almost a decade in a sector struggling with slower global trade.

Our Asia Business correspondent Karishma Vaswani has the details.

This is one of Asia's easiest ports and a major player that has helped

Singapore turn into a global trading and shipping hub is Neptune Orient

Lines. It was started in 1968, originally as Singapore's national

shipping line. Today it is one of the world's largest. 92 vessels

servicing many ports around the world. But over the last few years

it has racked up $4 billion in debt. No surprise then that Neptune Orient

Lines has been looking for a suitor. For NOL -- it require significant

investment. We need to improve Alp competitive position and stay

competitive in this industry. NOL must be willing to take the capital

investment to stay in the game. That's despite the weak conditions

in the industry. We operate in a very fragmented world, with many

players. The industry as a whole suffers from volatile freight

trades. In this context, and as mentioned, we believe that scale is

more critical than ever to ensure profitable growth. Now, this deal

could be one of the biggest ever in the global shipping industry.

Companies have been under pressure to cut costs, sell their assets and

merge. And with predictions that next year's economic output will be

even worse than next year, expect more consolidation to come.

Japan has released revised growth numbers for the third quarter

of the year, showing the economy grew by 0.3% from July to September.

It thought it contracted, so this is a big relief for the Japanese

president Shinzo Abe, as we thought Japan was in recession in that time.

Rico Hizon joins me now from Singapore.

Point three of a %, but it makes all the difference! -- zero .3%. A big

relief, dodging a recession. With the number, it offers a glimmer of

hope for policymakers struggling to end years of stagnation. Capital

expenditure was the key contributor to this upgrade, which is a welcome

sign for the government, the pressuring of companies to invest

more and put the economy on a sustained recovery path. The data

may ease some pessimism over the outlook and allow the central bank

to hold off on additional 80 is in measures, even as inflation slides

further away from the 2% target. But there are sceptics who say don't

read too much into this. The upgrade was amplified by a slower than

expected fall in inventory, which works to push up growth, but

suggests that companies are struggling to sell goods in the face

of weak demand. Of course, apart from this GDP revision, some good

news, especially from the trade front. Japan posted a surplus for

the 16th straight month in October, as the trade balance swung to a

surplus, which now stands at about $12 billion US. This might be the

start of something good for the Japanese economy. Let's hope so!

Thank you. These are the markets.

Oil is still languishing at lows last seen in 2009. Asian stocks

across the board are lower because of the China trade data. See you

soon. Farmers need to dramatically cut

the amount of antibiotics they use on their animals, because

of the threat to human health,