:00:00. > :00:00.He has said he has had encouraging talks with the UK government, but
:00:00. > :00:00.there is still a lot to do. Now on BBC News, all the latest
:00:07. > :00:18.business news live from Singapore. Interest rates are going up in the
:00:19. > :00:25.US. Asia exceeds its fortune in lower rate. And trying to cool
:00:26. > :00:33.china's redhot property market, but outside big cities it is a different
:00:34. > :00:40.three. -- story. Welcome to Asia Business Report. America's central
:00:41. > :00:47.bank has been in the spotlight lately, and investors wait for its
:00:48. > :00:50.next rate hike. We will also get monetary policy decisions from
:00:51. > :00:54.several central banks in Asia. We expect a hike from the Federal
:00:55. > :00:58.Reserve in the US, we are seeing a wave of cuts in this region. In
:00:59. > :01:04.Japan, the official cost of borrowing has been lowered to below
:01:05. > :01:10.0%. We are expecting a cut in the near future if not today from both
:01:11. > :01:15.Australia and India. We will hear from our correspondent in Delhi
:01:16. > :01:19.shortly, but first Shane Oliver expends why he believes is tell you
:01:20. > :01:26.is unlikely to cut today. It is a wait-and-see issue. For some time,
:01:27. > :01:29.bankers have said there is low inflation in a stroller providing
:01:30. > :01:35.scope to cut interest rates again if needed. We also have relatively
:01:36. > :01:39.restrained growth in Australia and unemployment is around 6%. The
:01:40. > :01:45.Australian dollar has gone up by about 12%. That rise in the dollar
:01:46. > :01:49.partly owes to the Federal Reserve. They have taken a pause in raising
:01:50. > :01:52.interest rates which has pushed down the value of the US dollar and
:01:53. > :01:57.pushed up the value of the Australian dollar, which is a drag
:01:58. > :02:03.on the Australian economy at a time when we need a contribution from
:02:04. > :02:07.exports for growth. You say Australia needs this growth in net
:02:08. > :02:10.exports, and it is facing several headwinds not those from China,
:02:11. > :02:17.which is slowing. It is its largest trading partner. How much of this
:02:18. > :02:20.can be fixed by policy measures? I guess the big dynamic in Australia
:02:21. > :02:26.is the end of the mining boom. That has dubbed about 1%, and I will
:02:27. > :02:31.continue next year as mining investment continues to unwind.
:02:32. > :02:38.Against that, houses helped more recently. The low Australian dollar
:02:39. > :02:43.helped areas like tourism, and higher education as foreign students
:02:44. > :02:45.came back to Australia, and more recently, manufacturing. The low
:02:46. > :02:50.Australian dollar has helped growth keep going at a time when the China
:02:51. > :02:55.related boom has come to an end. That was Shane Oliver on interest
:02:56. > :02:58.rates. But another central bank making a rates decision today is
:02:59. > :03:08.none other than India, which I mentioned earlier. Many are
:03:09. > :03:11.expecting a cut. When India's central bank meets today to decide
:03:12. > :03:16.on interest rates, focus will be on inflation. It has come down for the
:03:17. > :03:20.first time in six months. The last rate cut was in 2015 when the
:03:21. > :03:27.governor cut interest rates by 50 basis points down to 6.75%. And if
:03:28. > :03:32.another cut takes place later today, it is expected to be passed onto
:03:33. > :03:36.consumers more quickly than before, echoes of a new policy by the
:03:37. > :03:40.central bank. Many argued this is the best chance for the bank to
:03:41. > :03:45.lower rates this year -- because of a new policy. If there is lack of
:03:46. > :03:49.rain in the upcoming monsoon season, it could spike in inflation again,
:03:50. > :03:52.and the country faces its first back-to-back droughts in three
:03:53. > :03:57.decades, nicking life difficult for more than two thirds of the nation.
:03:58. > :04:03.For once, the debating India is not will there be any interest rate cut
:04:04. > :04:10.but by how much? Will the government go for a quarter percentage point
:04:11. > :04:14.cut, already about 0.5% cut? India's finance minister has already
:04:15. > :04:18.warned that high interest rates could make the Indian economy
:04:19. > :04:22.sluggish. It seems the government is hoping India's central bank will
:04:23. > :04:29.further cut policy rates to maintain growth momentum in the economy.
:04:30. > :04:36.Call has been king, but recently the sector has been struggling and seems
:04:37. > :04:42.to be in some sort of decline -- coal. Global prices fell by a lot
:04:43. > :04:46.sliced e.g. To a global oversupply, unlike other commodities, coal
:04:47. > :04:51.prices have been suffering from china's slowdown -- thanks to a
:04:52. > :04:58.global oversupply. There are also plans to cut its own consumption of
:04:59. > :05:01.the black stuff by 1%, or 43 million tons. Other coal producing countries
:05:02. > :05:07.are also being affected. One of North America's biggest coal
:05:08. > :05:10.companies filed for bankruptcy, and exporters in Australia and Indonesia
:05:11. > :05:16.have also been hit. Where does the future light for coal? We can speak
:05:17. > :05:19.to the chief executive of one company who gives us his view. It is
:05:20. > :05:26.important to make a distinction between two types of coal. There is
:05:27. > :05:31.coal that is fed into steel, fundamentally no substitute existing
:05:32. > :05:36.flat. And the level of demand we safer that is a direct result of the
:05:37. > :05:47.health of the global steel industry -- no substitute for that. The coal
:05:48. > :05:51.that is focused on by environmental activists, if we see five or ten
:05:52. > :05:56.years ago, it developed market concern in investing in coal, I
:05:57. > :06:02.think we have seen a continuation of that turnout. Big US, British
:06:03. > :06:08.Private Equity, public pension funds are pulling back from investments in
:06:09. > :06:12.coal. There are emerging China market is dependent on it for power
:06:13. > :06:16.generation. We are seeing a further export of pollution at the moment to
:06:17. > :06:21.an ever tighter handful of developing market economies that are
:06:22. > :06:27.still willing to rely on coal for their power. I think the hangover
:06:28. > :06:31.for coal at the moment is the sustained pressure in considerable
:06:32. > :06:35.part environmental capital led continues to put an overhang on the
:06:36. > :06:41.demand side. Even as that supply-side comes in to check,
:06:42. > :06:45.reduces itself and reduces itself further, it is consistently seeking
:06:46. > :06:50.to catch up with the weakening demand side, and hence that
:06:51. > :06:53.sustained overhang. In other businesses, the International
:06:54. > :06:57.Monetary Fund has said china's slowdown and rising volatility in
:06:58. > :07:01.emerging markets are two of the top to the glowing growing economy.
:07:02. > :07:04.Global stocks plummeted on the first trading day of the New Year after a
:07:05. > :07:12.major sell-off in Chinese markets. It fuelled disappointing data in the
:07:13. > :07:17.world's second-largest economy. They could be more spillovers as china's
:07:18. > :07:20.financial influence grows. Apple's latest attempt to enter the Indian
:07:21. > :07:24.smartphone market is selling used friends has hit some obstacles. The
:07:25. > :07:29.iPhone maker wants to become the first phone maker to import and sell
:07:30. > :07:34.used friends in Apple but this is its second attempt to gain
:07:35. > :07:40.permission to do so -- sell used phones in India. As you keep
:07:41. > :07:45.hearing, china's economy is slowing, but the cost of housing continues to
:07:46. > :07:49.go up and up. At least in some parts of the country. New figures show the
:07:50. > :07:54.price of new homes is still increasing in some big cities like
:07:55. > :08:00.Shanghai, and that is on top of the 15% growth we saw last year. But how
:08:01. > :08:05.risky is the government's policy? Our correspondent has more.
:08:06. > :08:11.Shanghai is still billing to meet demand, but in name middle of a city
:08:12. > :08:16.of 25 million people, there is not much space left -- but in the
:08:17. > :08:20.middle. That is the kind of place Howard is in a hurry to buy. He has
:08:21. > :08:25.been waiting for the right people work in six months. His friend's
:08:26. > :08:30.apartment has gone up in price by 60%. I go to buy is secondary
:08:31. > :08:35.apartment and a lot of people are looking at that one, so people just
:08:36. > :08:39.push up the price. So many people are visiting one single apartment.
:08:40. > :08:43.The government has imposed new restrictions to try to cool demand.
:08:44. > :08:47.Buyers will need more deposit for starters. But it is a delicate
:08:48. > :08:53.balance because at the same time, the world's second-biggest economy
:08:54. > :08:56.is slowing. China is a nation of savers. The government is trying to
:08:57. > :09:06.change that. It wants people to spend more, Oromo. Buy a house maybe
:09:07. > :09:12.and everything that goes with it -- or more. Some buyers are using
:09:13. > :09:16.places like this to part finance the homebuying. It is called
:09:17. > :09:19.peer-to-peer lending and has grown to be a multibillion-dollar online
:09:20. > :09:25.business but it is risky. Many friends have gone under. The problem
:09:26. > :09:37.is should this money be going into other sectors? Lots of investors are
:09:38. > :09:41.getting barebones this way. Expect their loans. So China has cheap
:09:42. > :09:45.money in concerns about bad loans. But outside the major cities, it is
:09:46. > :09:50.not a shortage of houses they are worried about. It is empty houses.
:09:51. > :09:54.And now out of Shanghai, there is a development nearing completion. It
:09:55. > :10:00.might be a safe bet for investors, but that tower is only 40% full. In
:10:01. > :10:05.smaller cities across China, it is far from rosy. Massive amounts of
:10:06. > :10:08.new housing remain unsold. Nonetheless, the government says the
:10:09. > :10:12.property market is in good health. It is not clear what the new
:10:13. > :10:18.measures to tackle that grey market in loans will be, china's regulators
:10:19. > :10:23.want to make sure these sellers have buyers, wherever they are a
:10:24. > :10:26.Christian country. -- across the country.
:10:27. > :10:32.A quick look at the markets. We are waiting for the Hang Seng to open.
:10:33. > :10:33.And that is it for today's Asia Business Report. Thank you for
:10:34. > :10:37.watching.