:00:15. > :00:26.Too early to call a recovery. Or is oil beginning to shake off its
:00:27. > :00:34.losing streak? On the take. We find out if India is having any success
:00:35. > :00:39.cleaning up corruption. Hello and welcome to Asia Business Report.
:00:40. > :00:44.Investors will be keeping a close eye on oil this week to see if it
:00:45. > :00:48.continues its winning streak. During Friday trade, it climbed above $42,
:00:49. > :00:59.reaching its highest mark of the year so far. It slipped slightly but
:01:00. > :01:04.this is a major reversal for oil prices which had plunged before this
:01:05. > :01:09.latest surge. I talked to a representative from the oil industry
:01:10. > :01:12.about whether a corner has been turned. We have seen a remarkable
:01:13. > :01:16.recovery in the last few weeks in oil prices. A few things have
:01:17. > :01:21.happened in the last few weeks. I think one of them is we had a few
:01:22. > :01:39.supply disruptions. Pipeline disruptions, 1-dimensional -- one in
:01:40. > :01:43.Manchuria, and a decline in oil production in the United States.
:01:44. > :01:55.Payrolls were better than expected in non-American producing countries.
:01:56. > :02:02.So it is not just supply and demand, there are many aspects behind it and
:02:03. > :02:08.the Fed has said that easing monetary policy has led to investor
:02:09. > :02:13.appetite for assets like oil. Of course. On the demand side it is
:02:14. > :02:17.very much related to world economics. On the supply-side, of
:02:18. > :02:24.course, there are a host of factors have been playing a role. We're
:02:25. > :02:32.finding some excess supply getting out of the market. If you look at
:02:33. > :02:40.the latest IAEA report, they clearly say that the excess supply, 1.5
:02:41. > :02:43.barrels per day in quarter one and expected to be the same importer
:02:44. > :02:53.to, it is going to shrink too much smaller later on in the year. April
:02:54. > :02:57.17 visit big day for oil as OPEC producers meet then. Will Saudi
:02:58. > :03:01.Arabia's agenda be to keep oil prices low and drive out American
:03:02. > :03:12.producers? Actually, what they are looking to do is freeze production
:03:13. > :03:18.at January levels. That is what they have been talking about, Russia and
:03:19. > :03:22.Saudi Arabia, the two largest suppliers. They've been talking
:03:23. > :03:25.about freezing production at those levels and taking out the excess
:03:26. > :03:31.supply to try to rebalance the market. This is a big thing because
:03:32. > :03:35.all along, Saudi Arabia has maintained, let prices crash, we
:03:36. > :03:41.don't care, we can produce at really low levels, so let the high-cost
:03:42. > :03:51.producer suffered. But eventually it will reach a point where they will
:03:52. > :03:55.do something about it. In other business news, China's central-bank
:03:56. > :04:00.governor says his latest data shows that the amount of money being taken
:04:01. > :04:06.out of the country is actually going down. Capital outflow has been a
:04:07. > :04:08.major concern as China struggles with slowing growth and Beijing has
:04:09. > :04:13.been trying to reassure investors that it still has a grip on the
:04:14. > :04:18.country's economy. It does seem Chinese consumers have taken on that
:04:19. > :04:23.optimism despite the slowdown. New research shows 55% of consumers are
:04:24. > :04:27.confident their income will increase significantly over the next five
:04:28. > :04:32.years and that is just two percentage points lower than in 2012
:04:33. > :04:36.when economic growth was stronger. Earlier I spoke to a representative
:04:37. > :04:40.from a consulting group responsible for this new study and I asked why
:04:41. > :04:45.Chinese consumers were feeling good about the economy while it was
:04:46. > :04:49.weakening. Chinese consumers are aware of the economic situation and
:04:50. > :04:52.they do see the currency negotiations and stock market
:04:53. > :04:59.turmoil. At the same time they do remain confident. As you spelled
:05:00. > :05:02.out, over the last three years consumer confidence has remained
:05:03. > :05:08.largely unchanged, which is a big surprise to us when we received the
:05:09. > :05:11.results back from the research. The main reason we are seeing God is
:05:12. > :05:23.that, so far unemployment has remained minimal. -- seeing that. At
:05:24. > :05:29.that point, the Chinese consumers are not yet feeling on their own the
:05:30. > :05:32.impact of that. But it is fragmented by geography because not everyone
:05:33. > :05:43.across the country feels the same way. You are absolutely right. Just
:05:44. > :05:47.a few years ago, everything in China was growing and consumers were
:05:48. > :05:51.spending across all categories. Now the differences are very big when it
:05:52. > :05:56.comes to different regions. In the northeastern part of China, for
:05:57. > :06:01.example, we do observe that consumer confidence has sharply declined. At
:06:02. > :06:04.the same time, in the eastern coast of the southern part of China, it
:06:05. > :06:08.has increased compared with three years ago. The same is also true for
:06:09. > :06:16.the spending patterns. Everything is no longer growing but this
:06:17. > :06:19.categories are. Product base spending has shifted to service
:06:20. > :06:23.-based spending. Movie Theatre spending has doubled over the last
:06:24. > :06:26.three years for example. The other thing is mass consumption has
:06:27. > :06:34.changed to more premium consumption and we have seen that across many
:06:35. > :06:39.categories, most noteworthy, cosmetics and skincare. In the past,
:06:40. > :06:41.this has been primarily domestic spending but today, 70 million
:06:42. > :06:50.Chinese have travelled overseas in the last year. Corruption. Whether
:06:51. > :06:54.paying a bribe or needing inside contacts to get things done, it is
:06:55. > :06:59.something that has long been a problem in India. But is the
:07:00. > :07:04.situation starting to improve? In 2013 India was ranked only 94th in
:07:05. > :07:11.the transparency international index where first is perceived as least
:07:12. > :07:16.corrupt. By 2015, it had moved up to 76 but that is still a long way to
:07:17. > :07:20.go. There are suggestions that technology is helping India slowly
:07:21. > :07:27.clean up its act and its image. Now we go to our correspondent. Caught
:07:28. > :07:32.in the act. A Delhi traffic policeman films taking money.
:07:33. > :07:35.Shocking as it may be, bribery like this, usually small amounts of money
:07:36. > :07:41.taken by officials for doing something that should be free, has
:07:42. > :07:46.long been a way of life in many Indian cities. Now the police forces
:07:47. > :07:50.trying to clean up the system, starting with their own. Using basic
:07:51. > :07:56.technology, people can use the messaging service WhatsApp to submit
:07:57. > :08:05.evidence of alleged wrongdoings and they have had thousands of
:08:06. > :08:08.responses. Compared to the amount invested to make the service more
:08:09. > :08:15.accessible to the public, I feel the economic impact on the average
:08:16. > :08:19.citizen would be much more. Cracking down on often petty corruption on
:08:20. > :08:22.the street corner is one thing. Another big frustration many Indians
:08:23. > :08:26.have come across is that getting even official things like passports
:08:27. > :08:30.can only be done if you know the right person or pay the right
:08:31. > :08:38.bribe. Somite technology be helping to clean up that as well -- so
:08:39. > :08:41.might? India issues over 12 million passports each year. It used to be
:08:42. > :08:46.an endless wait to get one but now the process can take as little as 48
:08:47. > :08:51.hours. That is partly down to the technology automating the system,
:08:52. > :08:54.making things more streamlined. But the government department
:08:55. > :09:00.responsible says computers have stripped away the opportunities for
:09:01. > :09:07.under the table bribes. It makes the service paperless. It makes the
:09:08. > :09:11.bureaucracy faceless and also the operations become cashless. Once you
:09:12. > :09:22.make the operation cashless, the corruption loses control. From
:09:23. > :09:26.fingerprints scanning to keeping digital records, it may seem basic
:09:27. > :09:30.budget is technology making a difference. With India increasingly
:09:31. > :09:32.looking for outside investment, often from countries with very
:09:33. > :09:38.strict anti- bribery and corruption laws, making doing business here
:09:39. > :09:46.more transparent can only help. And in the war on corruption, technology
:09:47. > :09:51.is looking like a potent weapon. A quick look at the markets before we
:09:52. > :09:57.go. Really quiet in Asia today. The Nikkei is close for a public holiday
:09:58. > :10:01.and fairly flat trade is taking place in Hong Kong with the Hang
:10:02. > :10:05.Seng opening slightly higher than usual. In Australia, we're seeing a
:10:06. > :10:12.lot of energy related stocks being sold off, possibly because of the
:10:13. > :10:19.flight slide in oil prices late on Friday. -- slight. There are also
:10:20. > :10:25.calls from the Prime Minister for an early election in Australia which
:10:26. > :10:27.will lead to investor caution. That is all for this edition of Asia
:10:28. > :10:33.Business Report. Thank you for watching.