03/04/2017 Asia Business Report

And a stop story in the UK, -- top story. Theresa May says the UK is

steadfastly committed to the city of triple toe. -- Gibraltar.

Chinese President Xi Jinping heads to the US. We preview his meeting

with Donald Trump and other key market events of this week. And

bubble, toil and trouble. Is Beijing becoming too expensive for its

residents to buy a home? Welcome to Asia Business Report live

from Singapore with me, Mariko Oi. We have a packed show and week ahead

of us. Line and ministers and central bank governors from the

Association of Southeast Asian Nations art meeting in the

Philippines. On Tuesday, we have surely a's central bank expected to

meet and probably keep borrowing costs on hold and then on Thursday

and Friday, Chinese President Xi Jinping meets US President Donald

Trump in Florida. Earlier, I spoke with the chief investment officer

with the bank of Singapore. I started by asking what we can expect

from the Mac you to meeting. I don't think we are expecting too much. --

ASEAN. Lots of things might get discussed. Some statement in support

of global free trade that not much more than that. And I can't have

broke the news only that the Reserve Bank on Australia meeting on Tuesday

but not expecting to do anything either? The bank of Australia has

been discounted as doing very little for quite sometime. I think the

fundamentals are moving their way slowly but I think they will be

patient through the rest of the year, possibly. And the most

interesting agenda for many this week will be the meeting between the

Chinese and US presidents. What are we expecting? We sought Donald

Trump's leading to executive orders on Friday kind of targeting China

even though he says he is not. Are we expecting some kind of frictions

or are we expecting a deal? I think it is too early for a deal. I think

Mr Trump has made various promises. He has certainly lost out on

healthcare so getting tough on China is probably in line with his

thinking. There is some risk that it gets verily robust between him and

China -- fairly. Certainly a initially. Maybe push for a deal a

little bit later. Certainly, it might be on the all arming side. And

when the Japanese Prime Minister West they are, the two leaders

played golf but this time we are not expecting that? Certainly not but

lots of talk. There has been talk of conflict of interest. China has been

a guess working favourably to the Trump organisation. If that likely

to have any kind of impact? There has certainly been an effort by the

Chinese to position themselves into the vacuum but they believe Mr John

to live in, certainly in their Asian region. -- Mr Trump. That is the

risk he is running. It is a risk to his policy to give the ground to

China. It is not our view. The Chinese are probably going to be in

a position to get in there. At a -- at the same time, we expecting it Mr

Trump to be tough. It will be a tricky end to the week. Mix that in

with the numbers on Friday, an interesting week for markets. All of

this week, we are looking at the property show in this region. We

experiencing a boom, bust or a bubble? Today we start in China

warehousing has become somewhat unaffordable. -- where jhousing.

It is start of the evening rush-hour in Beijing. These young people are

pouring out of the towers above and into the subway below. In their

millions, they will join the commute to the outer suburbs. There is no

way that most young people here could afford to buy a flat downtown.

In fact, it's hard to imagine how most of them could ever afford to

buy a property anywhere in this city.

It is true, there are plenty of cities in the world where property

is expensive. Sydney, Paris, Singapore, it you name it. Here, the

flats might cost just as much about people's salaries could be half or

even less. So, who is buying property here? The

government is trying to rein in this explosion by limiting access to

credit in the hope that China's young workers may one day be able to

buy a place of their own. In other business news making

headlines, Toshiba is down by more than 7% at this hour on reports that

it may miss its earnings yet again. It is now expected it shares will be

demoted to the second section of the Tokyo's stock exchange in August.

Staying with Japan, business confidence has improved and amongst

its big manufacturers, according to the bank of Japan's closely watched

survey. The headline index for many manufacturers sentiment stood at

plus 12 in March compared with plus ten in the previous survey. Japan

has a officially recognised digital currency bit coin as a formal method

of payment but there are strict rules. Companies need permission to

use a bit coin and must have at least $100,000 in backup cash.

Earlier I spoke to Toby from ten X. I asked him how significant the move

is. Quite significant. Japan is one of the biggest retail of ex-

markets. It allows big players for example GM oh which is the biggest

broker to come into this market. I would say for 2017, bitcoin at

option is interesting to watch. Will it be popular especially since it

would be quite expensive? Because of the new regulation, there are

stricter regulatory requirements. As well as it requires companies to

apply for licences. That however has not stopped companies to enter this

market. What about the reputation issue because of the collapse of a

company making a huge news headlines. As it recovered? It

collapsed in 2014. It has at this time left a lot of mistrust and

uncertainty in relation to bitcoin. Because of big institutions entering

the market with strategic investments or announcements of

going really into it, I think we now have a market in combination with

the regulation that allows for a lot more safety for the end consumer to

trade as well is use bitcoin as a means of payment. I guess the big

question among players is whether it will be subject to consumption tax.

What is your view on that? The new regulation allows for buying and

selling of bitcoin to be strictly can set -- exempt of consumption

tax. That said, games or profits from trading are still liable to

capital gains tax. And briefly, to expect any other countries to

follow? That is an interesting point. I guess if we see this

current trend of really profitable industry growing further in Japan

then other countries will follow suit. That show you the markets

before we go. It is the first day of the second quarter but not too

exciting. The Nikkei is up by just 1.0%. --0 .1%. In the US, Wall

Street ended the first quarter in the red. That is it for this version

of Asia Business Report. Thank you for watching.

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