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Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore. | :00:00. | :00:17. | |
Australia logs a decade of Budget deficits, putting its AAA credit | :00:18. | :00:28. | |
rating at risk. Soars to an all-time high, adding $1 million to its | :00:29. | :00:33. | |
market value -- Bitcoin soars to an all-time high. It is Wednesday. Glad | :00:34. | :00:43. | |
you could join us for this midweek edition of Asia Business Report. I | :00:44. | :00:47. | |
am Rico Hizon. Australia's Budget is expected to be in the red until at | :00:48. | :00:53. | |
least 2021, and markets are down. As you can take a look at the market | :00:54. | :00:57. | |
boards, the ASX 200 has fallen nearly one third of a percent in | :00:58. | :01:02. | |
early trade. Late on Tuesday the government announced a huge | :01:03. | :01:04. | |
infrastructure spending plan worth $55 million -- $55 billion and the | :01:05. | :01:10. | |
stimulus is expected to create thousands of jobs across the country | :01:11. | :01:14. | |
but will also lead to a wider than expected deficit of $22 billion for | :01:15. | :01:18. | |
the current fiscal year. Earlier I spoke to the realm -- earlier I | :01:19. | :01:28. | |
spoke to Cherelle Murphy from ANZ bank. We are likely to get a few | :01:29. | :01:32. | |
more deficits from here on in. We were heavily impacted by the global | :01:33. | :01:36. | |
financial crisis, and we are really just still recovering from that. | :01:37. | :01:40. | |
There has been certainly a lot of changes in taxes, particular at the | :01:41. | :01:46. | |
household level, and new spending measures which were put in when | :01:47. | :01:49. | |
times were good and of course now that times are a little bit tougher, | :01:50. | :01:53. | |
and particularly with commodity prices having come off their highs | :01:54. | :01:57. | |
from 2011, it has been harder and harder for the government to get | :01:58. | :02:01. | |
revenue back up to where it used to be ten years ago. And with more | :02:02. | :02:06. | |
deficits to come, Cherelle, is Australia's AAA rating at risk? | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
Look, I think the credit rating agencies will not he urgently moving | :02:12. | :02:14. | |
to move our credit rating. I wouldn't say that the issue has been | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
put to bed though, either. There are certainly some things in the Budget | :02:20. | :02:23. | |
that would comfort the credit rating agencies, the fact that the | :02:24. | :02:26. | |
government removed the so-called zombie measures, measures from | :02:27. | :02:29. | |
previous budgets which were never realistically going to get through | :02:30. | :02:32. | |
the Parliament. The government removed all of them, it was a cost | :02:33. | :02:36. | |
of $13 billion to do so. Credit rating agencies didn't like that. | :02:37. | :02:40. | |
Also the new policy is that the government has brought in are | :02:41. | :02:43. | |
arguably more likely to pass the Parliament so the Budget looks more | :02:44. | :02:49. | |
credible. Also, of course, there is a return to surplus projected by the | :02:50. | :02:54. | |
end of the forward estimates, so by 2019/2020, sorry, I 2020 one. And | :02:55. | :02:58. | |
what that means is of course that there is a recovery plant through | :02:59. | :03:06. | |
both revenues and expenditure. Now, a lot of analysts, including | :03:07. | :03:09. | |
yourself, have criticised the government in the past for being a | :03:10. | :03:12. | |
little bit too optimistic about that. But you would have to say that | :03:13. | :03:16. | |
now, compared to more recent years, we do have a more likely outcome of | :03:17. | :03:21. | |
surpluses, given the economy is starting to pick up. And Miss Murphy | :03:22. | :03:26. | |
referred to comment on the Australian government's new bank | :03:27. | :03:30. | |
tax. Treasurer Scott Morrison hopes to raise $4.6 billion from the levy | :03:31. | :03:36. | |
from the balance sheets of the country's five largest banks. It is | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
estimated it will add 10% to their liabilities. The Australian bankers | :03:41. | :03:44. | |
Association slammed the move move, saying it is a direct attack on jobs | :03:45. | :03:51. | |
and growth. In business news making headlines, shares in Rupert | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
Murdoch's news Corp rising 2% after its earnings beat forecast, much of | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
the growth coming from the expansion of its real estate website which had | :04:02. | :04:05. | |
a big increase in traffic. As well as profits and revenue. Shares in | :04:06. | :04:10. | |
Walt Disney falling nearly 2% after its revenues missed market | :04:11. | :04:13. | |
expectations, coming in slightly under forecast at $13.3 billion. | :04:14. | :04:19. | |
Disney's boss says there has been significant growth in subscribers to | :04:20. | :04:23. | |
digital services, but not enough to make up for losses. Bitcoin surged | :04:24. | :04:32. | |
above $1700 for the first time ever. In the last 24 hours alone its | :04:33. | :04:38. | |
market cap has risen by more than $1 billion, according to an industry | :04:39. | :04:42. | |
website. But in India, where there have been complaints that virtual | :04:43. | :04:46. | |
currencies are being used for money-laundering, the government has | :04:47. | :04:49. | |
been pressured into figuring out how to manage them. Will regulation | :04:50. | :04:53. | |
help? Our correspondent spoke to Michelle Gupta, part of a foundation | :04:54. | :04:59. | |
to monitor transparency in India's market. The Bitcoin market has been | :05:00. | :05:07. | |
growing at 100% per annum. It is a million-dollar company within the | :05:08. | :05:11. | |
foundation. In India, the growth has been phenomenal. And I think there | :05:12. | :05:16. | |
is a lot of attention within the media in the country and it has led | :05:17. | :05:20. | |
to the government paying attention to it. But if you look at the | :05:21. | :05:25. | |
comments from the Indian government, they are really concerned about | :05:26. | :05:30. | |
Bitcoin. The Finance Minister has said that people should be cautious, | :05:31. | :05:35. | |
they shouldn't deal in Bitcoin. You have a Member of Parliament who has | :05:36. | :05:39. | |
called it a 'Ponzi' scheme, a pyramid 'Ponzi' scheme. The central | :05:40. | :05:46. | |
bank has warned investors, so clearly there are consequences. The | :05:47. | :05:50. | |
volatility involved, they will make an informed choice in terms of | :05:51. | :05:55. | |
making investment in Bitcoin or other crypto currencies. And as far | :05:56. | :05:58. | |
as people calling it a 'Ponzi' scheme, there have been some | :05:59. | :06:03. | |
instances in India where certain pyramid scheme companies have turned | :06:04. | :06:07. | |
up across India, and that is probably creating emotion, and the | :06:08. | :06:15. | |
popularity of Bitcoin means they have nothing to do with Bitcoin, and | :06:16. | :06:20. | |
they offer unrealistic returns to investors. I think it is fair for | :06:21. | :06:24. | |
the government to warn the general public that they need to be aware. | :06:25. | :06:30. | |
And people need to be more aware and understanding of how Bitcoin works. | :06:31. | :06:37. | |
So what are the benefits of Bitcoins? What are the advantages if | :06:38. | :06:45. | |
they legalise? I think Bitcoin has advantages in India. Creating a bank | :06:46. | :06:49. | |
account is still not easy, and we are seeing this penetration of | :06:50. | :06:54. | |
mobile technology and systems like Bitcoin make it cost-effective for | :06:55. | :06:57. | |
people who come into the financial inclusion system, and there are real | :06:58. | :07:02. | |
implications for that. The second part of it is value transfer. There | :07:03. | :07:06. | |
are billions of dollars which come in, and the costs are really high. | :07:07. | :07:11. | |
If the governments and banks would Hamas the power of technology and | :07:12. | :07:15. | |
instruments like Bitcoin, that could really bring down the costs -- would | :07:16. | :07:31. | |
harness the power. The problem the US economy has with migrant workers | :07:32. | :07:35. | |
is that it needs more of them. Agriculture and tourism is feel it | :07:36. | :07:39. | |
particularly badly. Our correspondent reports from a farm in | :07:40. | :07:44. | |
New Jersey. Farmer Kurt Dawson get to spend as much time in the field | :07:45. | :07:49. | |
as he used to, or as he would like. He is a first-generation farmer. For | :07:50. | :07:54. | |
him, agriculture was a calling, to do God's work. As we to his 600 acre | :07:55. | :08:02. | |
property, he admits his business would not be thriving without | :08:03. | :08:07. | |
outside help. Agriculture as we know it would not be able to survive if | :08:08. | :08:11. | |
the people who were working today as undocumented workers were not in the | :08:12. | :08:17. | |
workforce. During peak season, Farmer Kurt has more than 200 people | :08:18. | :08:22. | |
working for him. 50 are here on temporary visas, like Ivan. He | :08:23. | :08:29. | |
leaves his wife and two daughter 's Arica eight months of the year and | :08:30. | :08:34. | |
has been doing so for the last six six years. -- in Costa Rica. You | :08:35. | :08:46. | |
can't find sufficient Labour, and you don't know from year-to-year if | :08:47. | :08:50. | |
you are going to be able to find the workers legally. So you wonder why | :08:51. | :08:53. | |
people turn to doing things under the table, and why they turned to an | :08:54. | :08:57. | |
undocumented worker. Because we don't even have the resources in | :08:58. | :09:01. | |
place to allow legitimate employers the legal means to hire people | :09:02. | :09:07. | |
properly. This farm depends on guest workers, but the application process | :09:08. | :09:10. | |
for temporary visas is expensive and cumbersome. Farmer Kurt needs more | :09:11. | :09:16. | |
workers, and needs them faster, and it would seem, so does the US | :09:17. | :09:23. | |
economy. We have very close to full employment. That is great, and it is | :09:24. | :09:27. | |
good for... We want wages to grow up, and we wanted to a tight Labour | :09:28. | :09:31. | |
market we want the economy to expand beyond the current Labour force, so | :09:32. | :09:35. | |
I think you do need immigrants to come in and help that to expand. I | :09:36. | :09:39. | |
think that is a good thing. The rhetoric surrounding immigration has | :09:40. | :09:43. | |
become harsher and focused on more and more constraint. But the fact is | :09:44. | :09:48. | |
that a huge number of American businesses in different industries | :09:49. | :09:51. | |
are dependent on the Labour of overseas workers. And what these | :09:52. | :09:56. | |
businesses want is for the President and for Congress to focus on the | :09:57. | :10:05. | |
reality. Let's have a look at the markets, and Asia is currently mixed | :10:06. | :10:09. | |
in early morning trade, due to revive the worries about North Korea | :10:10. | :10:15. | |
and the lacklustre mood on Wall Street overnight. Tokyo's stocks | :10:16. | :10:19. | |
opening higher as the yen remains weak on expectations for global | :10:20. | :10:25. | |
recovery growing. Expectations are down due to lower oil prices. Thank | :10:26. | :10:30. | |
you for investing your time with us. Have a wonderful Wednesday, | :10:31. | :10:34. | |
everyone. I am Rico Hizon. Goodbye for now. | :10:35. | :10:36. | |
You are watching BBC News, I'm Greg Dawson. | :10:37. | :10:41. | |
The top stories this hour: US President Donald Trump has | :10:42. | :10:44. |