05/04/2016 World Business Report

Now for the latest financial news and World Business Report.

Leaked documents from Panama reveal that close relatives of some of

China's top leaders have links to offshore companies in tax havens.

Yes, the world is now spending $1.7 trillion a year on this stuff -

sending the share price for the makers to 4-year highs.

We'll tell you who the big spenders are.

Michelle tells me I have nine minutes! I will give you an exciting

look into the world of the business. interest rates - do they fuel

housing bubbles? Tax authorities around

the globe have promised action following the leak of millions

of documents from the Panamanian They reveal how the world's rich

and powerful hide their wealth They also show how leading regime

figures in Syria and north Korea were able to keep their companies

trading, despite being blacklisted The papers make uncomfortable

reading for a number of current Close relatives of senior Chinese

political leaders - including the President, Xi Jinping

- are among those found to have Our correspondent Celia

Hatton has more details. Ask the wrong question,

this is what happens. Chinese citizens who want

their Communist leaders to list their assets,

are rounded up and put in prison. This is the group of men who rule

China and they refused to discuss their wealth but they say they want

to eliminate corruption Punishing 300,000 officials

last year alone. That makes today's news very

uncomfortable for Chinese President The relatives of seven current

and former Chinese leaders were found to have links to offshore

companies, all in known tax havens. Of the seven named, these three are

the most important: President Xi Jinping and two other top leaders -

Zhang Gaoli and Liu Yunshan. All three men have in-laws who are

listed as directories or It is not illegal for Chinese

citizens to invest overseas but the Communist Party bans

relatives from profiting from their political connections, so

this new information is unwelcomed. So far, the government is doing what

it can to control the story When I enter "Panama Papers"

into China's most popular search engine, this is what I get -

a message telling me But even the censors can't hide

a growing awareness in China that there is a large wealth gap

between the vast majority of China's ordinary people and the red

aristocracy - the wealthy officials The fact that more and more details

about overseas holdings of the red aristocracy has come out,

this will translate into resentment Also, more entrenched doubts about

whether this one-party authoritarian Slowly we are learning more

and more about how the relatives of Chinese leadership store

their money Overseas. Despite best efforts of the

Communist Party, an unexpected leak of files from half way around the

world in Panama is shedding light Global defence spending has now

reached $1.7 trillion a year, thanks in parts to the war against

ISIS that figure is on the rise. Arms firms are profiting - their

share prices rising to a four-year Over the past few years, Western

countries have tried their best to pare back defence spending but

others have sales soaring. The US defence budget declined by 2.4% last

year although it is still far and away the biggest military spender.

Saudi Arabia increased by 5.7% to 87 billion dollars. They are involved

in was in Yemen, Syria and Iran. The far east has seen the biggest

increase. China rose 7.4%. That has provoked increased spending by

neighbours such as Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. If you are

any of Japan, South Korea, you name it, this idea that there is the

threat not 20 years in the future, now. It is going to get stronger and

stronger. He suddenly say, we have to spend money. This increase in

spending is the boost to the arms industry. The world is largest

defence contractors has seen its stock double since 2011. It is

positive development for defence firms but, at the same time, those

dollars are emerging not from their markets but from the Asia-Pacific,

in particular, in an increasingly competitive environment. They can

not only have to compete with each other and also with the fast

developing industry of Asian countries like South Korea.

US, China, written is number five. Higher, in fact than Russia. --

Britain. Exciting stuff. The Reserve Bank of India is expected to cut its

interest rates. The global trend. Low oil prices and the uncertainty

surrounding the Chinese economy factor. Is this the new normal and

does it signal danger for the global economy? Lets find out. Thank you

for getting up this alley. Australia kept their rates on hold, as

expected. Let's talk about India, the world 's fastest growing

economy. Does it do good job using interest rates as tool to manage the

economy? India is very complex economy. It does have the best job

it can. Its biggest problem at the moment is trying to restructure some

of the bad debts in its banking sector. Really, on the Indian

economy, the stimulus needs to come from structural reforms,

legislative, and reform in the banking sector. At the moment it is

overloaded with bad debts. We all know that India needs structural

reform, it is not just about interest rates. But the negative

interest rate, that is where the central banks charge the banks to

put their money in. Do not want your money, get your money out there. --

we do not want. People who have money are not putting it into banks,

so they put it into other areas like housing. Does that artificially

inflate the prices? Yes, people cannot put money on deposits in our

conservative way, they look for assets, whether it is property,

housing to boost their returns and get better returns. The problematic

with it if it does not address a lot of the problems. One reason for

negative interest rates if they do not want their currency revalued

and, secondly, and more substantially, we have problem with

the banking system globally because the current models we have is

basically one not fit for purpose. They need to keep interest rates low

so that, as we restructure banking, as opposed to the current banks,

they need to keep rates low to make sure we do not get the shock and, as

the current banks start to winter on the vine, so to speak. We had the

list of some of the major central banks around the world using

negative interest rates are, unfortunately we are out of time.

But they are using negative interest rates because all the other tools

have been used. Mark, always our pleasure. We are saying goodbye to

make look, I have been told. Follow me on Twitter. I will be back

shortly to take look at the papers from around the world.

The number of police staff taking long term sick leave for

psychological reasons has gone up by a third over the past five years.

Figures provided to the BBC following a freedom

of information request suggest long term sick leave also increased.