08/02/2016 Asia Business Report

across England for Monday a storm imaging comes in. Dover sport has

been closed because of extreme weather. Dover's port.

Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore.

India's latest growth numbers look set to confirm the country is

growing faster than China, but does it trickled down to the real

economy? And it is the first day of the bin New Year. So what does the

Year of the Monkey mean for business -- Lunar New Year.

Good morning, Asia, hello, world. Glad you could join us for Asia

Business Report. Happy Chinese New Year. I'm Rico Hizon in Singapore.

Later today we will be finding out how fast India's economy grew in the

last three months of 2015. Most expect a continuation of the trend

seen in the last year, growth above 7%. A pace that would confirm India

is the fastest-growing large economy of 2015. But there is concern that

the benefits of that growth are not filtering down to the so-called real

economy. The car industry has traditionally been seen as a guide

to how things are going. We were there to test the mood at the Delhi

auto show. Fast cars, new launches, and a

hopeful industry. After years of underperformance, the expectation

here is that India's growing economy will finally read our business.

IndyCar cells grew by more than 7.5% last year, faster then any of the

world's, gets -- India castles. Hoping to cash in on this, have

already spent hundreds of hundreds of millions of dollars on factories

like this one. In common with other brands, this factory is used

primarily to make cars for export. It is also betting on more Indians

buying cars. For now, it only has 1.5% share of the local market but

is here for the long haul. The growth is outpacing the rest of the

world and the auto industry seems to be following that trend. While

people in cities are buying cars, any worried this rapid growth is

affecting the two thirds of India's population that we've in urban

areas. It is not just cars that are not being bought. Sales of

motorbikes and small trucks in rural India have been weak. Back-to-back

monsoons have left many farmers worse off, and wary of spending

money. That has been felt by businesses like this one, the

country's largest tractor maker. There was some liquidity. The ruling

economy right now is a sleeping giant, one of the recent sales have

not been searching is because there is a lot of ground still to cover.

Cells are a good indicator of how people are feeling about the

economy. Back at the car show, malefactors hope optimism about 2016

will help the industry pick up speed -- manufacturers.

It has been over a week since Japan's decision to push the cost of

borrowing to negative. Their aim was to force companies to spend, but

economists believe it will have limited impact with business

investment not held back by high interest rates. As much as worries

about the long-term outlook. What has been the early response to

negative rates? Earlier I asked why we have not seen a sustained

depreciation despite the initiative. What we're seeing in Asia is not

everybody is in such good shape as India. There are big concerns, and

that usually means the Japanese yen is becoming a safe haven currency,

the dollar being awake does not help either. We have strong pressure this

year on the yen and the bank of Japan wanted to show we have a new

tour here. If this goes too far, we have a new tool and we will use it.

Could this be wrong timing? No, the timing is quite good. This week we

will have new data at showing prices double feather.

it also means overall pressure. This is a

will be used to have an impact on currency markets, and when the bank

of Japan is just moving beyond the current limit of -0.1% or even

further. But the main objective as well for implementing this negative

interest rate policy was to force companies to spend. When do you

think they will start spending? What we are seeing is that there is a

strong focus on the exchange rate, on exports, on companies moving

their business investment. But there you are focusing overseas

investment. The domestic economy has limited growth potential, so the

government is trying to help companies to invest in Asia in the

longer-term, and this is a target. The exchange rate is important for

that and they are focusing on it. Apart from this policy, other other

options they can still implement to jumpstart the economy? -- are there

other options? We will have elections this summer, and

policymakers are reluctant to do big problem -- electorate. This will

have an impact on the currency, buying even more time than the

government the Labour side, reforms in health

and agriculture, and necessary changes in the domestic

economy. That is basically the idea. And in other business news: The

foreign exchange reserves have fallen to their lowest level in more

than three years as Beijing defends the one. China's foreign country

reserve plans by about 100 billion US dollars in January -- currency

reserves. It has been running down its fast currency holdings, which is

more than 3 trillion US dollars in a bid to boost the UI's value. It is

the Lunar New Year, and the first day of the Year of the Monkey. It is

time for celebrating across Asia and an opportunity to look ahead to what

the next 12 months will bring. We went out on the street in Singapore

to see what's on in business are expecting. I feel in the year of the

Fire monkey, I work in tech, said there will be a trend moving towards

small businesses growing and social enterprise. I'm looking at the

industry and I wish the Year of the Monkey would bring prosperity to the

banking industry. I know there are challenges. In the Year of the

Monkey, it should be quite challenging because of what is

happening in the global markets. I work in performance coaching and

innovation and believe that in the year of the Fire monkey, innovation

will be continuously trending, not only in companies that outside of

companies. I work in hospitality. For the Year of the Monkey, the

economy now is not that good. I don't think people will travel that

much. I am from the legal industry, and there has been a lull in the

shipping industry right now, so I expect the Fire monkey to help us

pick it up. Challenging times ahead, but still upbeat and positive. But

what about an equity analyst who is doubling as an expert. Every year,

they come up with the index. It is a tongue in cheek forecast for the

lonely year. -- minute New Year. We can find out what this means for

you, the investor. In Chinese culture, we love this animal, the

Fire monkey, because we think the monkey has he managed to buck we

don't like the monkey because of its mischievous behaviours. -- but

sometimes we don't like. The Hang Seng index also has the

characteristics of the monkey. It will be a rocky ride, and we believe

there will be lots of ups and downs. In this year, each year, the

animal, the Zodiac, and each element of the five elements rotate, and

this year, you can see the monkey is sitting on top of sectors including

the auto sectors and financial. We would suggest avoiding water related

sectors. They often do not work well. Water related sectors include

transport, gaming, consumer retail, and also healthcare. Volatile times

ahead. Let's have a look at the markets. Many of them are closed for

the Lunar New Year holidays, but those open for trading are in

negative territory. Hong Kong, Singapore and China are closed today

due to the Chinese New Year holidays. Thank you for investing

your time with us. Happy New Year.