08/03/2016 World Business Report

Those are the latest headlines from BBC World News.

Now for the latest financial news with

China's exports plunged more than 25% in February.

Its struggling manufacturing sector is dragging down

And it's the countdown to the Rio Olympics, but there's anger that

the billions of dollars promised to improve the City's sprawling favelas

I'm Sally Bundock, also in the programme: On International Women's

Day, we'll hear how Japan is trying to woo women back to the work place.

We start in China where there's news of a steep export slump.

It will make difficult reading for China's leaders as they lay

down their five-year economic and political plan at the National

The world's second biggest economy is trying to keep the growth going

The latest trade figures show exports plunged more than 25%

That's far steeper than most analysts predicted.

While imports also fell 13 point 8%, down for 16 months in a row.

That leaves a trade surplus of $32.6 billion.

The fall is partly due to the week-long Chinese new year holidays

But it is bad news for China's leaders who downgraded

the growth target to between 6.5%-7% for this year.

This has hit financial markets with shares

on China's stock markets falling for the first time in six days.

Lovely to see you. Tell us more about this data. Not good news at

all. Mounting problems for the Chinese economy. And this trade

report has deepened concerns about the health of the world's

second-largest economy. Economic growth has slowed to a 25 year low

in 2015, debt is starting to balloon with capital outflows accelerating

and last week, modus investment services even warned they may lower

the country's debt rating. Many are wondering if the country's economic

problems have bottomed out and what more we can expect from Beijing to

jumpstart growth. Hopefully the answers will come soon but for now

and economists say the February numbers may have come as a shock to

the market but this does not indicate that the economy is getting

worse. It is just a seasonal change, you mentioned the lunar New Year's

holiday, but still the mainland will face more challenging situations in

2016 compared to 2015. However, in the near-term, as the closely

watched barometer for the global economy, this suggests it is not

looking good in the short to medium term. It is difficult with just one

set of numbers as the lunar new year break was in February and many are

saying we need the full quarter's numbers to get a sense of whether

this is a blip in the month of February or not. Absolutely. The

lunar new year was between January-February and many people

were on holiday. Many factories were shut down. There was not enough

production. So we will really have to see the data from the month of

March and combine it with January and February and really find out if

the trade numbers, both imports and exports, were indeed bad. But if you

look at the trends over the past year, imports and exports have also

shown to be struggling. We will have to wait and see. Thank you.

Meanwhile, Asia's number two economy has

Japan is in its fourth year of monetary stimulus with little sign

The latest numbers out today show the economy shrank at an annualised

rate of 1.1% in the final quarter of last year, although this is a

slight improvement on the previous estimate of a 1.4% contraction.

But household spending keeps falling, now lower than when

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came to office making it hard

It's partly due to wages that aren't rising quickly enough to

Mr Abe may now delay raising a sales tax, from 8% to 10%,

It's worth remembering when that tax was hiked in 2014,

Well, one way Japan's government is trying to spur growth is

by encouraging more women to join the workforce.

More Japanese women are entering the workforce all time but only a tiny

fraction of them hold senior positions. It is great news and

great progress to see more women overall working in Japan, but we

still have a dearth of females in decision-making leadership positions

come out whether it be in the government, whether it be in the

government, weathered B directors on private company boards -- Michael

whether it be. Shinzo Abe had said he wanted to fill 30% of new jobs by

women by 2015 but he has now slashed that target with Japanese women

holding just 8% of director positions in major companies as

opposed to the 22% global average. TRANSLATION: I believe women need to

return to work but there is a lack of discussion about how to apply

motherhood to real working situations. Last week there was much

fanfare as Japanese girls were celebrated on Girls Day. The

challenge now is to create an environment where these young people

can grow up to for fill their hopes and dreams, what ever they may be --

fulfil. The countdown to Rio is on: 150

days from now Brazil's world famous Unlike

the World Cup there two years ago, when many venues were completed just

days before the event, this time But many in Rio are unhappy,

claiming the promise of change within

the cities extensive and rundown And it is the rich who are set to

benefit from the Rio Games, With the Olympic Games starting in

just 150 days, construction workers are busy pouring concrete. But this

is not a sports venue, this is a favela. This community leader says

this favela will be a different place after the games. TRANSLATION:

This is a dream come true for residents here, who were expecting

this for 20 years. A few years from now the works have done, you won't

have flooding 's or open sewerage. This place will be great. When the

Olympic Games were announced in Rio de Janeiro, this is what the poor

communities were expecting, that some of the big money being invested

in the city would trickle down to the favelas, very much in need of

better housing, plumbing and pavement. That has happened to some

extent but this has been more the exception than the rule. The local

government promised to invest $2 billion over ten years to urban eyes

all of the city's favelas but of the 14 neighbourhoods that were

earmarked for change, only two have actually seen any work being done.

Brazil's Institute of Architects says all others were abandoned by

authorities. They initially helped the government with the programme

and sage is the rich areas that are set to benefit most from Olympic

legacy. One posh neighbourhood is getting better transport links.

Apartment buildings here are only affordable for the very rich.

TRANSLATION: On the London 2012 in the east side was revamped to bring

social changes and help the poor, Rio Negro opposite, investing

heavily in posh areas where real estate is already rich and is now

richer -- Rio has done the opposite. Officials say the programme was

scaled down but not abandoned and several people in fragile

neighbourhoods will still benefit. This falls far short of its initial

promise. The markets are negative and it is no surprise because of the

news out of China and Japan. Even oil is headed lower. In the US, the

markets ended pretty flat. I will see you soon.

Psychiatric services for children have had no significant investment

despite government plans to overhaul provision, that's according to