:00:00. > :00:00.National Executive Committee considered Ozil is to let MPs elect
:00:00. > :00:14.the frontbench team. -- considered proposals.
:00:15. > :00:23.It has been dubbed Super Central Bank Wednesday. Markets await
:00:24. > :00:32.monetary policy decisions from the US and Japan. Revving up, with
:00:33. > :00:41.Asia's love for speed. The world's fastest car is launched in
:00:42. > :00:47.Singapore. Good morning Asia, hello world. It is a Wednesday. Glad you
:00:48. > :00:51.could join us for this midday edition of Asia Business Report. We
:00:52. > :00:55.kick off with the Japanese and American central banks, and they
:00:56. > :00:59.often met in the same week but they rarely announce their decisions on
:01:00. > :01:03.the same day. This Wednesday is an exception and the Bank of Japan
:01:04. > :01:11.could end up stealing the Fed's thunder. The bank of Japan governor
:01:12. > :01:16.is known to surprise markets, so what are his options? The cost of
:01:17. > :01:20.borrowing is below zero but he can cut it further or he could change
:01:21. > :01:24.the size of the current stimulus initiative. Or he could do nothing
:01:25. > :01:32.at all. No one seems to know what to expect, except for our very own Asia
:01:33. > :01:36.business correspondent. Today is the day when he and his colleagues will
:01:37. > :01:42.decide on monetary policy, but they have to add into the mix the trade
:01:43. > :01:47.deficit numbers, which was a surprise. They were pretty grim, to
:01:48. > :01:54.put it mildly. The trade data showed that exports fell by 9.6% from one
:01:55. > :02:01.year ago, that is against expectations of a fall of 4.6%. If
:02:02. > :02:07.you look at imports, how much Japan brought into the country, that also
:02:08. > :02:12.fell slightly, by about 17.3% versus expectations of a 17.8% decline. Why
:02:13. > :02:18.is all of this important? Because what it ended up producing a result
:02:19. > :02:24.of was a deficit of around 18.7 billion yen. Against the expectation
:02:25. > :02:31.of a surplus, of more than 200 billion yen. Basically Japan is
:02:32. > :02:36.selling less than it is buying. That is bad news for the overall economy,
:02:37. > :02:40.because of course it is an export dependent economy. Pressure on
:02:41. > :02:43.Haruhiko Kuroda and the bank of Japan. The thought that the negative
:02:44. > :02:47.interest-rate policy they implemented earlier this year would
:02:48. > :02:50.weaken the Japanese yen, boost exports, but instead it has
:02:51. > :02:56.continued to strengthen the yen, which is bad news for exporters.
:02:57. > :03:00.Exactly. If you look at the Japanese yen's trajectory since the negative
:03:01. > :03:05.interest-rate policy came into play earlier in the year, it is up by 18%
:03:06. > :03:09.year-to-date. So it really shows that instead of pushing the yen down
:03:10. > :03:12.that the controversial negative interest-rate policy has worked in
:03:13. > :03:16.the opposite direction. And all of this brings into question this
:03:17. > :03:20.whatever it takes policy that we have seen not just from Japan's
:03:21. > :03:25.Central Bank but other central banks like the ECB, where we are going to
:03:26. > :03:28.throw the kitchen sink at our economic problems and monetary
:03:29. > :03:32.policy is going to solve all of our issues. None of this is working. It
:03:33. > :03:39.has been three years of a massive stimulus programme in Japan but that
:03:40. > :03:45.key structural reform Peller of Abenomics has yet to come into play.
:03:46. > :03:50.Indeed, co-ordination is to be improved to be able to jumpstart the
:03:51. > :03:57.economy. Thank you so much for your insights. A deal has been announced
:03:58. > :04:01.in China, which will create the world's second largest steel
:04:02. > :04:08.producer. The leading company is buying its debtladen rival as part
:04:09. > :04:12.of Beijing's push to overhaul the industry, which is struggling with
:04:13. > :04:18.production. They have an annual production combined of 60 million
:04:19. > :04:23.tons a year. The Brexit divorce may seem amicable but the proceedings
:04:24. > :04:27.have yet to begin, and that is why the former commissioner and Labour
:04:28. > :04:31.government minister Peter Mandelson is urging businesses to push Britain
:04:32. > :04:37.to negotiate the best deal possible from the EU and was of the
:04:38. > :04:41.consequences if they don't. People say to me, well, this divorce
:04:42. > :04:45.between Britain and the European Union, it doesn't seem to be going
:04:46. > :04:48.so badly. It's not going badly because it hasn't begun. The
:04:49. > :04:53.government in Britain hasn't even agreed the terms on which it wants
:04:54. > :04:57.to seek a divorce. That's why it hasn't started, and when it gets
:04:58. > :05:02.under way it will take from anywhere between two 25 or six or seven years
:05:03. > :05:08.to be completed. But my point is this. If we find that we are out of
:05:09. > :05:14.the European Union, and out of the single market and Europe's Customs
:05:15. > :05:19.union, without a proper trade deal to support us, what we will be doing
:05:20. > :05:25.in those circumstances is simply pushing British trade and investment
:05:26. > :05:30.over a cliff. The head of the American bank Wells Fargo has been
:05:31. > :05:34.subjected to a three-hour long verbal lashing from the central
:05:35. > :05:38.banking committee. The chairman was called gutless and told he should
:05:39. > :05:42.resign over practices which resulted in bank employees opening as many as
:05:43. > :05:46.2 million accounts, which customers never asked for. He said he was
:05:47. > :05:51.deeply sorry. Our correspondent has the details. The truth, the whole
:05:52. > :05:57.truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God. This was one of the
:05:58. > :06:01.rare moments in which niceties were exchanged between the Wells Fargo
:06:02. > :06:09.CEO and US lawmakers. He tried to set an apologetic tone. I am deeply
:06:10. > :06:13.sorry that we failed to fulfil on our responsibility to our customers,
:06:14. > :06:19.to our team members, and to the American public. I accept full
:06:20. > :06:25.responsibility for all unethical sales practices in our retail
:06:26. > :06:31.banking business. But lawmakers were not buying it. By far the harshest
:06:32. > :06:35.grilling came from Senator Elizabeth Warren, who questioned how John
:06:36. > :06:40.Stumpf was taking responsibility for what happened at his bank under his
:06:41. > :06:47.watch. Have you resigned as CEO or chairman of Wells Fargo? The
:06:48. > :06:51.board... Have you resigned? No, I have not. Have you returned one
:06:52. > :06:55.nickel of the millions of dollars that you were paid while this scam
:06:56. > :07:00.was going on? The board will take care of that. Have you returned one
:07:01. > :07:05.nickel of the money you owned while the scam was going on? Were back on
:07:06. > :07:09.the board will... I will take that as a no. The Senator from
:07:10. > :07:12.Massachusetts was not done there. You squeeze your employees to the
:07:13. > :07:16.breaking point so they would cheat customers and you could drive up the
:07:17. > :07:21.value of your stock, and put hundreds of millions of dollars in
:07:22. > :07:26.your own pocket. And when it all blew up, you kept your job, you kept
:07:27. > :07:33.your multi- million-dollar bonuses, and you went on television to blame
:07:34. > :07:40.thousands of $12 and our employees who were just trying to meet cross
:07:41. > :07:44.sell quotas that made you rich. The legacy of the 2008 financial crisis
:07:45. > :07:48.loomed large at this hearing. Lawmakers are still frustrated by
:07:49. > :07:56.extensive fraud in the banking sector, and what seems to be
:07:57. > :08:01.impunity by senior executives. How do you sell the world's fast and one
:08:02. > :08:04.of its most expensive cars at a time when people are tightening their
:08:05. > :08:08.purse strings? Well, these people claim they have the answer, in a new
:08:09. > :08:12.car. My colleague went to the showroom and spoke to the Company's
:08:13. > :08:18.board members to see how it sees its sales in Asia. Now the far east and
:08:19. > :08:24.the Middle East is increasing, and is about one third of our worldwide
:08:25. > :08:33.sales. And the Company's parent is VW, so how has that scandal affected
:08:34. > :08:37.your production? Of course the VW group has looked at everything, and
:08:38. > :08:41.they have looked at us, and since we are positive and strong business
:08:42. > :08:46.case, and we have a good and order bank, it did not affect us. So let's
:08:47. > :08:50.have a look at this car. It looks quite extraordinary, very shiny. I
:08:51. > :08:55.want to see what is so special about it. The special thing is you have
:08:56. > :09:01.the beast, which is the performance engine, and a beauty. And inside
:09:02. > :09:04.here you have the beauty, which is the most precious and finest
:09:05. > :09:11.materials like the invisible carbon fibre here, or the aluminium in
:09:12. > :09:17.here, or the leather. So we picked really exquisite and very fine
:09:18. > :09:22.materials for it. It is the world's fastest car. Remind us how fast it
:09:23. > :09:29.goes again? It goes 420 kilometres an hour, and it is limited to 420
:09:30. > :09:34.four road use. And are you optimistic about sales here in Asia?
:09:35. > :09:38.I think Southeast Asia for us is a strong market, Japan is a strong
:09:39. > :09:46.market within Southeast Asia, and Singapore, and so is the Middle
:09:47. > :09:52.East, with Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar. You didn't mention China,
:09:53. > :09:57.though. Not so much China, historically China has been a strong
:09:58. > :10:03.market for us. Do you know why? Because of luxury taxes. They have a
:10:04. > :10:08.tax of 165% of luxury goods in China. And there is a clampdown on
:10:09. > :10:13.corruption. We do have Cheney 's customers. Many of them are outside
:10:14. > :10:20.of China. The typical Chinese billionaire has several residences,
:10:21. > :10:25.and he will buy the car then in another resident if he is
:10:26. > :10:29.interested. And this car, ladies and gentlemen, costs a whopping 2.6
:10:30. > :10:32.million US dollars. Thank you for joining us on Asia Business Report.
:10:33. > :10:39.Goodbye for now. The top stories this hour: US
:10:40. > :10:43.officials have said they believe Russian aircraft carried out
:10:44. > :10:46.a deadly air strike on an aid convoy in Syria on Monday, despite furious
:10:47. > :10:50.denials from Moscow.