28/04/2016 Asia Business Report

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

Facebook's profits soar, smashing market expectations with a sharp

rise in earnings end users. And with new numbers out in Japan, we look at

whether the central bank will bring in more measures to boost the

economy. Welcome to Asia Business Report. The

world's social network, Facebook, is getting bigger and so are its

profits. The social media giant has posted earnings of more than $1.5

billion between January and March, which is up 195% compared to the

same period last year. Earlier I spoke to our correspondent, Dave

Lee, who is in silicon valley. Facebook has once again exceeded

expectations. Wall Street is very harsh on Facebook, because they have

been doing so well since they were founded. Every time they put figures

out, Wall Street wants more. For now, Facebook continues to impress

investors. Advertising is behind it mainly, with $5.4 billion in revenue

last quarter, 5.2 billion of which was from advertising. It has managed

to grow the business quite considerably, now that people are

watching more videos on the platform, millions every day, that

is a really big earner for Facebook. Advertisement money is flowing into

river channel. And they are continuing to innovate and impress

both the technology community and the people who invest. It was also

interesting in this announcement that they announced a proposal to

create a new class of non-voting shares. Tell us about the rationale

behind that. You may remember at the tail end of last year, when Mark

Zuckerberg and his wife had their baby, they announced they were going

to set up a foundation to do charitable giving and to back

various products. And they were going to fund that by giving away

their Facebook stock. The reason they have restructured their stock

today is to allow Mark Zuckerberg to give his wave without losing control

and voting rights within the company. I suppose soon we will

start seeing precisely what they plan to do with that money and what

charitable projects they will back. Shares in PayPal surged 4%, after

that company also posted better than expected revenue of $2.5 billion

between January and March. Its profits jumped 28% compares with the

same period last year to more than $450 million. Samsung has reported a

12% rise in quarterly profits boosted by strong sales of its

latest smartphone. The world's largest smartphone maker made a

profit of $4.6 billion in the three months to March.

New data from Japan shows industrial production recovered in March and

unemployment has eased, but the state of the economy is a muddy

picture, with retail sales still looking weak and Japan slipping back

into inflation. We can see that these consumer prices are falling at

their fastest pace in three years, household spending declining at its

fastest pace in a year. It looks at a dire picture for Japan. Good

morning, thank you for having me on the show. The trend is not our

friend right now, to use an industry term. The numbers were, as you say,

weak, and it is getting harder to see how it can be projected that we

are on the path to 2% inflation. That means we should start to expect

some changes. What changes are these likely to be? Already the Bank of

Japan, who will be coming out with their decision later today, they

have had a two-day meeting on monetary policy, will there be more

expansion perhaps negative interest rates? I think the BOJ will probably

wait for the Fed to raise rates first, and then closely or in tandem

with will see some move. Whether it is in industry or bond buying

structure, it is hard to say what, but there will be some action on the

part of the BOJ and I think it will probably be clustered around, if you

will, the time when the Fed moves to raise rates to maximise impact. I

also think you will see the LDP moving to some kind of activity like

supplemental budgets. Last but not least, some hard discussions on

whether it will be appropriate to add another 2% to VAT. The LDP being

the ruling party in Japan. Will these measures work, because we have

already seen rising interest rates, which was considered quite radical.

So, it hasn't really started to work it, as it? It hasn't, but one of the

main reasons it has is because the Western world is not cooperating.

Energy prices have fallen so precipitously... This was completely

unplanned. The things that go into what makes up the CPI and what

should be causing inflation, the US and Europe and China, those are the

three major drivers of the world economy, none of them is really

doing what you would hope they would do that would help Japan along its

way. There is so much that can be done domestically making it an

international cooperation. Thank you for joining us. He was talking about

the US Federal Reserve, and I can tell you that they have again held

interest rates at December levels, between 0.25% and 4.5%. The Fed said

that while conditions have improved they are still waiting for inflation

to reach 2%. Mitsubishi motors has not issued a full-year forecast,

with the carmaker saying domestic orders have halved since its

admission last week that it had rigged fuel efficiency tests. The

race to produce the first commercially viable driverless car

is hotting up in China. An automaker has joined the ranks of Google, BMW,

Volvo and Toyota. While it is a relative newcomer it appears to be

making a bit of ground. Self driving cars, once considered in the realm

of science fiction, heading to a road near you. Many of the world's

vehicle makers are racing to become the first to have a marketable

driverless car. People sat up when a car in China was driven to some

distance. And it arrived at the Beijing auto show. It is going to be

quite a while before we see large numbers of driverless vehicles

filling our streets. The makers of this Chinese model believe that they

will come and it is sooner than you think. It will take a while to have

our cars on city roads or inside towns, but in two or three years we

can deliver highway ready vehicles. City driving might be possible in

say 2025. We can already achieve it in a controlled environment. Water

parking, for example, is easy. As for auto driving on a highway with

no pedestrians and that everyone sticking to the rules, we can

achieve this in two or three years. To tell the truth, it still seems

strange. The idea of driving along and taking your hands off the wheel

as you are burning down the freeway, that while the car is

moving I could be checking my e-mails or perhaps making a phone

call. But automakers are confident that there is going to be strong

demand for cars like this, and that is why they are pouring so many

resources into these driverless vehicles. Urban world conditions in

China are bit chaotic, with electric bikes, pedestrians and cars all

mixed together. It seriously challenges the self driving system.

We need to prove to the authorities that it is safe to drive this car on

the road. Officials will evaluate the safety of these vehicles and

make relevant laws, working together with carmakers. Changan hopes to

start selling driverless cars within two years. Initially they might be

used for long haul journeys in which passengers are light at the

outskirts of a city or town. These cars could also be used in a robot

taxi fleet. Either way, this is the future, and it is almost within

reach. Let's have a look at the markets

before we go, because you can see that most shares that are open, and

the Fed reserve has issued few clues on monetary policy, so everything is

within 1% of redstart.