12/06/2017 Asia Business Report

The British Prime Minister faces a showdown with Conservatives after

losing her majority in last week's election. And live streaming is a

multibillion dollar industry, but check out some extreme measures

Chinese Internet stars take to become popular.

Good morning, Asia. Hello, world. Welcome to another edition of Asia

Business Report. I'm Rico Hizon. It's a Monday. Glad you could join

us. The former British Chancellor, George Osborne, has said he does not

believe there is enough support for a hard Brexit following the loss of

Tory seats in the General Election. Those comments come as Theresa May

meets Conservatives to shore up her position after they lost their

majority last week. She is trying to negotiate a deal with Northern

Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party to give her a majority in the House

of Commons. As we report, it comes down to trade, as Europe command a

key export market for Northern Ireland. In economic terms, Northern

Ireland is less economically developed as the Republic of Ireland

and the UK. It is a smaller economy with lower levels of activity and

exports and heavily dependent on the state. Those sectors apart from the

states it relies on our tourism, manufacturing, and food. And they

need large supplies with low-skilled labour, mostly from Eastern Europe,

especially Poland. If Britain leads the single market, the stated

position for now, the DUP may request an exemption on the free

flow of labour into Northern Ireland as part of its package with the

Conservatives WWE also wants London to pick up the 450 million dollars a

year sent to Belfast for subsidies on top of the $1 billion a month

London already sends to Brussels. And then there are political bribes.

They want more investment in infrastructure. That means road and

rail projects otherwise not economic will not get shot down and will be

built. Business confidence has sunk after the election as a snap poll

found a dramatic drop in confidence following the hung parliament. There

are hopes the minority Conservative government could stave off a further

fall in the sterling when trading begins on Monday. It is at 1.27 to

the US dollar. The fall of the pound against the dollar and euro was less

dramatic than the drop in the week after the EU Referendum in June of

last year. Central banks from Washington to London to Tokyo will

be announcing if they are indeed ready to raise the cost of borrowing

this week. The decision from the Fed is coming on Wednesday. We can

expect market reaction on Thursday morning. That comes after a

surprising election result on Friday. We can expect the Bank of

Japan to announce its policy decision. Toshiba is expected to

announce who they will sell their business to in a board meeting on

Thursday. Earlier, I spoke to Tony Nash from Complete Intelligence,

asking him whether the Federal Reserve will this week raise

interest rates for a second time this year the pill it is quite

possible. In the first quarter, GP was up 7%. The economy is looking

better. Inflation is over 2% one of the key targets for the Fed. I would

not be surprised to see a rise this week and maybe one later in the

year. If they decide to hold in this meeting, why? They could be cautious

and say we want more workforce participation and other things. But

it is... There is less and less reason to be cautious and more and

more reason to be a little bit more active than they have been. The UK,

the flux after the elections, will there be a reason for the bank

moving on monetary policy? We don't think so. There has been talk about

easing. The UK needs fixed investment, they need investment.

Retail has come off a bit because of the pound depreciation. But they

really need investment to get the economy going again. Umm, but the

Central Bank, they are already in middle interest rates, it won't

help. The Bank of Japan, last week, we saw the last quarter GDP revised

downwards from 2.2% to 1%. Where did they get it wrong? What does this

mean for interest-rate decisions from the Bank of Japan members this

week? It is interesting. Central banks have spent $1.5 trillion in

markets. We don't expect the Bank of Japan to move. There will be -0 .1%

on banks. They will keep the tenure at about 0%. You have got really

free money in Japan. There is no cost to holding an borrowing. It is

Jekyll and Hyde. When can we see sustainability in the economy? We

don't see much improving in Japan until about 2019, OK? We have real

issues in retail coming on in 2008 in. We are still not seeing

manufacturing numbers getting better. -- 2018. It is getting

better, but not sustaining. That was Tony Nash from an analytics company.

And now we move to some breaking news on the corporate scene. Fuji

Film has flagged bigger losses than expected from overseas units, 340

million dollars. The price fell sharply after accounting

irregularities spread to Japan. Chinese box office ticket sales

could have saved The Mummy after its weak opening in the US and Canada

us. It brought in $70 million in China and South Korea alone, setting

records for films starring Tom Cruise. It shows big budget

Hollywood films remain popular in Asia decides failing in America. So

many people watch live streaming websites. Beijing commonly shuts

down ones that are obscene. But people continue to broadcast their

daily lives on line, whether they are singing, dancing, or just eating

pizza. And as we report, they are often prepared to take extreme

measures to become Internet sensations. This woman sees her road

to stardom as a full-time presenter on one of China's live streaming

platforms. The competition is intense. She will go to any lengths

to do it, including cosmetic surgery. TRANSLATION: It will make

my live streaming performance more nice, and greatly increase my fans.

That is because today's society values personal appearance.

Streaming presenters flirt, then, and tell jokes to encourage fans to

buy virtual gifts. -- sing. It is split by the platforms, agencies,

and the anchor. It is not as glamorous as it seems, but it can be

lucrative to be live streaming is a big and growing business that is

attracting the interest of technology giants, tencent, Alibaba,

and others. It more than doubled in the last year with revenues of about

4 billion US dollars, and it will only get bigger. Companies like

ThreeMinuteTV provide presenters for various platforms, even arranging

plastic surgery for would-be stars. TRANSLATION: There is an overall

image. There are parents, emotional intelligence, and so on, we decide

how much we should invest. -- their appearance. The ministry of culture

is not entirely pleased. It has ordered some platforms to change

content in the interest of public morality. But be live streaming

craze has gripped Chinese viewers and is unlikely to disappear. -- but

the. Even if it does undergo a facelift. BBC News. And before we

go, this is a look at the markets. Asia is weak to start the new

trading week. You can see the Nikkei went down by 70 points at the open.

The All Ordinaries Index is flat to higher at 57.15. The British pound

is at a seven-week low after the shock of the election. It is driving

US equities lower. And everyone is watching out for whether the Federal

Reserve will raise the cost of borrowing for the second time this

year. As for the US markets, let us take a look at it. The Dow Jones is

on your screen. Thank you for investing your time with us. I am

Rico Hizon. Sport Today is up next. You are watching BBC News. I am

Babita Sharma. The headlines. The Prime Minister