26/08/2016 World Business Report

Now for the latest financial news with World Business Report.

Will the big boss of America's central bank, the Federal Reserve,

drop any hints today about raising the cost of borrowing

Singapore introduces the world's very first driverless taxis.

Welcome to World Business Report. I'm Aaron Heslehurst.

If you are a regular viewer, we love you, in the non- biblical sense.

Stay with us. It is a bite-size show. Only eight minutes. Now, how

about this? Wouldn't you like to be invited to this weekend getaway?

It's not that nice, is it? Central bankers from around

the world will meet in Jackson Hole, The keynote speech will come

from the US Federal Reserve boss, Everyone will be looking for insight

into the state of the US economy and most crucially, when we may see

the next interest rate hike. Samira Hussain has this

report from New York. We didn't centre there, we couldn't

afford it. She sent us this report. At a time when Japan's economy is

barely growing, despite aggressive spending by the government, and

China's economy is stalling, posting some of its slowest growth rate in

years, and the UK has just slashed interest rates following a historic

vote in favour of leaving the European Union, it is hard to

believe that the world 's largest economy is thinking about raising

interest rates. But that's where we are. America's economy is showing

stock signs of strength. The labour market is growing at a pretty

healthy clip and consumers seem to be spending at all this is happening

despite global weakness. In a speech at the Aspen Institute on Sunday,

Janet Yellen's deputy, Stanley Fischer, said America's economy is

close to its targets, stating: those comments have given some hope

but really, many economists just want clarity. The Fed is going back

and forth between hiking rates or not. They have got the market

excited and had not followed through so this is a chance for Janet Yellen

to actually improve the confidence the market has in the Fed. The

Federal reserve continues to investors on its way to the next

rate rise. This meeting could be the Fed's chance to clearly set its

course. We will keep across that meeting.

Japan. Its inflation continues

to disappoint, with consumer prices dropping for the fifth

month in a row in July. The Japanese government, whatever

they had left in the kitchen, they threw at the economy. Nothing seems

to be working. That's right. We just heard Samira there, there is barely

any growth in the Japanese economy. There was no rise in prices. That is

why inflation today was 0.5% down. Worse than what economists had

expected and the latest setback in Tokyo's losing war against deflation

or falling prices. Japanese officials are yet again under

intense pressure to deliver as many economists are starting to lose

faith in the Prime Minister's strategy to kickstart growth. His

plan over the past couple of years, a mix of monetary easing, government

spending and redtape slashing. It gave the market a boost, the

Japanese yen some weakness but today, it has lost momentum. The

weak inflation figures are putting more pressure on Japan's central

bank for another round of stimulus. Tokyo recently announced what you

said, a massive multibillion-dollar package aimed at kickstarting growth

but analysts say it is not enough, it is disappointed the markets and

we are seeing the yen stronger than ever against the US dollar. Friday's

poor data comes against household spending numbers which are expected

to be disappointing and July exports suffered a sharp fall, the worst in

seven years. Figures showed that the economy registered zero growth in

the quarter. It seems like nothing is going right for the Japanese

economy with whatever they do, particularly economic 's Prime

Minister Shinzo Abe so fingers crossed that all of this will help

out and move forward and jumpstart the economy. Rico, I am only a

layman but nothing will work unless they do structural economic reforms

but they do not listen to me. They are not listening to me at all. I

have been telling Shinzo Abe, the Prime Minister. Listen up. How about

this? It pulls up - hang on,

it's got no driver. But it's here the world's first

self-driving taxi hit the road The company behind it - NuTonomy -

has beaten other ride hailing services such as Uber,

to roll out autonomous cars. But it's still just a limited trial,

with select passengers riding for free on select routes

in a small area. A fully paid service won't be

launched for two years. Ashleigh Nghiem caught up

with Doug Parker from NuTonomy and asked him how the ride

compares to a regular taxi. They are fairly conservative

and they might drive a bit boring, like your

grandmother might drive. They are careful, stop

for pedestrians and pass slowly. How can a passenger be

confident the cars are safe? We have driven hundreds

of thousands of kilometres, we have a good safety record

especially around collisions It will make the right choice,

it has a 360 degrees view continually, it sees what's

going on in the world and it reacts at the speed

of a computer, not at the speed It is a robot and it

has to do three things, see the world, decide what to do

and then decide to move an act. Those are the sensors

you see on the outside. Today they are very expensive

lasers, camera and radar to create a detailed

image of the world. It is continually updating itself 20

times a second or more 360 degrees, creating a detailed

picture of pedestrians, trucks and buses, all the things

a car sees, and it builds Then we have a decision

engine that decides How can the business model be

applied outside Singapore, especially when the government

highly restricts how many cars are here and there is

lots of regulations? First it will develop in places

like Singapore with well structured streets,

well marked streets, people generally obey

the rules of the road. We think we can find appropriate

markets but we probably won't start How hard will it be to get

insurance for these cars? We have a global insurance policy

that covers all our operations We will get more safety records

as we get more kilometres. It'll be easier to insure

than a lot of humans. What kind of reaction do

you expect from the industry? There will be an amazing

amount of disruption. If you think about it,

we will be launching fleets of cars that will replace

your individual car. That will mean fewer

personal car sales and All those things for

individuals will be Drivers will also be disrupted

initially and that's what we need to work with, especially

with governments to make sure that drivers and other people that

are disrupted in the industry It is a taxi, not a plane. I'm not

sure what he means. Air New Zealand's profits

are up a massive 42%. The airline posted record profits

of US$338 million on the back New Zealand had 3.31 million visitor

arrivals in the last year, Since the Brexit vote, the amount of

enquiries to emigrate to New Zealand has doubled, compared to the same

time last year. There you go. This is what the markets are doing, they

are looking at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, as we all are. You can

follow me on Twitter. We will have a look at the papers soon.

Nearly 200 people have been arrested since a blanket ban on