19/01/2016 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News, with Ben Thompson and Sally Bundock.

China's economy grows at its slowest pace in a quarter of a century -

but its within the government's target.

Live from London, that's our top story on Tuesday the 19th

The world's second biggest economy grew by just under 7% last year -

but some observers say growth could be much weaker

Spies like us. Apparently Britain's Security service, the MI5, is the

best place to work for gay and lesbian workers. The markets in

Europe has begun its trading day. Much stronger than what we have seen

in previous sessions and we will explain why.

And assessing the health and wealth of private businesses.

How do you do due diligence on firms - like these -

that aren't listed on any stock market?

Well, one website says it can give you the low down

We'll be speaking to the founder later in the programme.

And as tourism to North Africa slumps in the wake of

we want to know - have you changed your travel

Are there places you would no longer visit?

China's released its official figures for 2015, showing

the world's second largest economy has had its slowest full-year growth

The economy grew 6.9% - in line with the government's target

Taking a look over the past five years, you can see the steep drop

in growth, from double-digit figures just a few years ago,

as the country's manufacturing sector shrank and is now

in the process of moving towards a consumer driven economy.

And to make matters worse - some are concerned the figure may

Fears over the slowdown have fuelled market volatility in China over

recent weeks, spilling over into global markets.

Miranda Carr, Senior Analyst, Haitong Securities joins us

Good morning. Sally ran through the numbers there, and as we touched on,

it is about refocusing and rebalance of the economy away from just

exports. At the same time, it also means headlines like today, the

slowest growth in 25 years, how worried should we be? We should not

be that worried, we have good rebalancing services, 50% of the

economy for the first time in history. People have called for

this, China should not invest in bridges to know where or fuel a

property bubble but when it stops doing that, and gets back to

consumption growth, you get panicked headlines. The trust issue when it

comes to these numbers is the big one. We are getting concerned about

numbers to an extent, that might not be true anyway. Some suggest the

figure could be much lower in reality? If you look at the details,

things like the old economy is slowing significantly, things like

electricity consumption, railway freight, even mining investment,

things and steel mills, that is going into contraction which is

quite painful for that bit of the economy. That is what we feel

affected by because it is where we have had the most exposure,

international companies, industrial companies, that is where the most

pain is and why we think my God, it is slowing much more than we think.

At the same time, the service sector shows good grades? The bit that they

are trying to encourage? Yes, -- growth. If you have seen more

closures, you would expect the consumption side to fall as well but

it was doing pretty well. Auto sales, daily household goods, they

are reasonably good. Some of this rebalancing is happening but it is

not an easy process, it is quite a painful adjustment and we think 2016

is going to be where a lot of that real crunch is going to happen. Yes,

close scrutiny of the economy. Thank you.

A lot of detail and further analysis on the website.

In other news today... Attacks by the militant group

IS have led to a fall in tourism in parts of North Africa,

where millions rely on the trade New figures from the United Nations

World Tourism Organisation indicate visits to North Africa fell by 8%

in 2015, bucking The consumer goods giant Unilever

has reported a sharp fall in full year profit for 2015 -

saying it was a challenging year. The firm, which makes a vast array

of products including Ben Jerry's ice-cream and Lipton tea says

pre-tax profit fell 8% It expects even tougher market

conditions in 2016. Tata Steel and trade unions have

called for more British government support for the industry,

after the company announced More than 1,000 posts are to go,

mainly in Port Talbot But at the same time,

BT has announced it will create 1,000 UK jobs as part

of a commitment to answer more of its customer calls

from within the UK. Currently only half of those calls

are answered in the UK, with the rest answered by call

centre teams based in Bangalore A look at the business live page for

you. Details related to events in China. News that the FTSE 100 in

London has opened significantly higher, relief after a difficult few

days. Breaking news now, news from the

live team suggesting there could be problems with Twitter this morning.

They ask this... Let us know if you are having

similar problems. The world's nudging bank, nudge

theory. I like this idea. We've discussed this on the programme, the

father of nudge theory, rather than rules and regulations telling you

what you should and shouldn't be doing, nudge theory is about

coercing you into doing it by telling

you things are better. So rather than cutting spending, you may be

aware of spending too much on a certain day.

It's Friday for a lot of people, the Friday feeling overtakes them and

they spend money online! Or in the streets. I'm pretty well-behaved!

Let's take a look round the world at what's business stories

Sarah Toms is in Singapore with more of the market reaction after those

That is right, it is the news investors have been waiting for

cross Asia. We want to know what the GDP figures were. 6.9%. It comes in

line with expectations. For the markets across Asia, that has been

good news. Investors have been worried about a slowdown, and abrupt

slowdown, and these figures are showing China is slowing but it's

going the way that economists had predicted. Now, this means the

market's were not only relieved but cheering after today's figures. We

turned to the Hong Kong index and that ended up at 2%. The Shanghai

index is up 3.2%. Australia shares were up as well, even though

investors were trading more cautiously, and, of course, in

Japan, the nick a turned around earlier losses today to finish up.

That is the same story in South Korea. -- Nikkei.

That's all the action in Asia. That's not last night on Wall

Street, that was Martin Luther King holiday. The states reopens today.

Looking to what is happening in Europe, the positive sentiment

flowing through to the trading day in Europe, gains across the board.

Significant as well. Let's not forget that this is really following

through from what is nearly three weeks of torrid and negative

sessions for markets across the world. A 2% jump today for the FTSE

100 is not much in light of losses we seen in markets across Europe in

the last few weeks. In terms of winners and losers, we will discuss

that in a moment. And now Nada Tawfik can tell us

what will making the headlines in the business world

in the United States today. After turbulence last week,

investors may be hoping for a quiet time on Tuesday but they are

unlikely to get it. Beyond the general fear that falls last week

may have driven American stocks towards a fair market, there is a

lot of news to be released. The banking sector remains in the

spotlight, Morgan Stanley and the Bank of America Stadium four-year

earnings. Morgan Stanley may be revealing falling profits caused by

trading revenue, but the Bank of America should show a rise thanks to

cost cutting. A slew of other big names from corporate America getting

ready to report as well, from IBM to Netflix, and America's biggest

health insurer, American Health, and its biggest airline, Delta.

Jane Foley, Senior Currency Strategist, Rabobank joins me now.

Sally touched on whether it was a bounce back. The data from China was

not as bad as it could've been, there was some relief, but the

markets are still very vulnerable. Looking not only add data from China

but from the US, there has been bad data there, the markets are nervous

about that, and in Europe, we see some more great but it is still very

low. There is a concern in the markets, what do the central banks

do? When it comes to where the money is going, it is traditional safe

havens? We've seen that this year. Currency markets at the end. The

dollar has done OK. The euro, the current account surplus in Europe, a

big surplus of savers, money comes in for the Europe. Investors are

keeping their cards close to their chest and not really wanting to

disclose risky assets. In the UK, what does it mean about where we are

in terms of recovery? More data at 9:30am. We have more warnings about

things not being as great, true for Europe but here in UK it is

particularly true? Here, it is big news, we are likely get very low

inflation. Core inflation, when you take out or oil and food prices, it

is supposed to be a better reflection of demand. It is still

very moderate despite the easing monetary policy conditions for years

now. The Bank of England need not be in any rush at all to hike interest

rates. There is a point we will be talking more about. For now, thanks.

Still to come, assessing the health and wealth of private firms.

We'll meet the man behind the website that promises to give

the inside track on how well a private company is performing,

You're with Business Live from BBC News.

Figures out overnight confirm that growth in the world's second biggest

economy, China, is at its slowest rate for 25 years.

Quite significantly if you think about the last 25 years. What does

it mean for us here in the UK? Steph is at London Gateway,

the UK's third busiest port, which recently took delivery

of the UK's biggest ever It looks pretty calm there this

morning but it tells the story of global trade, doesn't it? It really

does. You can see here a beautiful setting this morning, it's peaceful

out there but busy here. This container ship has just come in and

you can see all of those containers on it being taken off, they will be

moved to this area, there is a robotic system that works out which

containers have to go on which Laurie. This really does tell a

story of international trade. We are a country that imports a lot of

products here -- lorry. We export a lot as well. China is an important

trading partner for a business like this. As you mention, this company,

this port, took their biggest ever shipment coming in from China on New

Year's Day. It is important for them. When things slowdown in China,

as we heard overnight that figure you mentioned about the slowdown,

the slowest paced growth for the last 25 years, for a business like

this one, it is a concern, does mean they went get as much business here?

The slowdown is very much about things cooling in China, surrounding

export and import, they are not trading as much with other countries

and, because of that, they have seen debt spiral, they have taken on a

lot of debt in the last decade, we've seen massive growth. We have

to remember we are talking about growth in China at 6.9% last year,

it is still a great figure when you think of how much we grow in the UK

at the moment. It is nowhere near that. There is concern though

because it is not like what it was in China, it was growing a lot

faster. It has slowed now. This tells a story though of

international trade here. Thank you. It is a story where the containers

would come in full of goods from China and not necessarily go out

that way either. Our top story, China's economy grows

at its slowest pace for 25 years in 2015, marking a rollercoaster

year but is within If you are on Twitter and you are

having trouble, apparently the website is down. We can show what

they're telling us at the moment. That's what you're going to be

welcomed by if you're trying it get on Twitter or use Twitter today. But

we are technically working for a change! No worries there.

Everything, so far, I'm going to curse it now! If you're looking at

the screen, it is not us, it is Twitter!

Now, we often take it for granted that we can scrutinise the profits

They're listed on the world's stock markets and have

to make their accounts public, but private firms don't

have the same responsibilities to be so transparent.

The companies you can see here all have one thing in common -

they're all private and they dominate the economy.

Public companies represent less than 1% off all business in the US.

The rest are privately run by private owners.

While that brings lots of freedoms, not being beholden

to shareholders, fewer regulations over their financial statements

and less scrutiny from people like us.

But if you wanted to learn more about those firms or even invest

in them, how can you get information about private businesses?

Our next guest says he has the answer.

Damian Kimmelman is founder and Chief Executive of DueDil.

Damien nice to see you. Just explain how this works. It strikes me from

that introduction that there are some things private firms want to

keep private, but you're trying to cast a bit of a spotlight on those

things. How do you get that information? So most people assume

that the private in private companies refers to privacy when in

fact it refers to privately held and as such people are sort of blind to

the fact that there is a wealth of data on private businesses, but it

is siloed. It is siloed in the businesses themselves. It is siloed

in Government institutions like Companies House or HMRC, it is

siloed online and we take all that information together and

contextualise it. And it is a service that you ask your customers

to pay for, is it? ?100 a month, is that correct? Annually, charged

annually. And for that, they get, access to all this information which

is actually freely available already. So why would I sign up? So,

most businesses use services like Google or Linked In which aren't

purpose-built solutions to find out this information. They use our

service because it is purpose-built. That's why we see so many of our

businesses that use it like Dell, Aviva, Linked In use our service to

really find the right businesses at the right time in the right

location. This was borne out of necessity. It says you had a bad

experience with a firm and therefore, you know, you were burnt.

Tell us what that was. What happened to give you this idea, this spark,

this is what the market is missing? So I went into business with a guy

who wasn't that savoury. He falsified his accounts. He used his

falsified accounts to get a loan and I had not done my due diligence, my

research, I realised there was a wealth of information on these

businesses and it could be used for solving the two biggest problems

facing businesses. How do I get new customers and how do I get paid? At

the moment you operate in the UK and Ireland, is that correct? And 18

other countries. In Europe mainly? Yes. That's mainly in Europe. In

terms of further expansion, I mean, to be fair, tracking all these

companies in those countries, I would imagine is an enormous task

anyway for your company, but your thoughts on future expansion beyond

that? Indeed. Well, let's not discount Europe as the second

largest economy. There is a wealth of opportunity within Europe, but

yes, we will be expanding internationally very soon.

You have talked about experiences that you've gone through. It strikes

me, and I asked you at the beginning, about the sort of

information that these firms wouldn't want to release. Do you get

any of these private firms of certain bits of information that

people don't made public. You must get a bit of backlash from them

saying I don't want this out there, there is a reason we have not listed

on the stock market for that reason? Of course, we do. So you know, the

biggest number of complaints that we get are from actors and actresses

who have fibbed about their age and own companies. But the reality is

that the biggest problems facing private businesses is not keeping

this private, that's such a misconception, it is really how did

I get new customers and how do I get paid? Interesting stuff. Best of

luck with it. Damien, really nice to see you. Thank you for coming in.

You go on holiday and you're no longer able to stream sites that

you are at home like Netflix or BBC iPlayer?

This is because companies block content that is not licensed

But the EU is trying to change that and ban the practice from happening.

One expert says there's a lot at stake.

One thing is pretty certain from a consumer prospective, it is good

news in that we are definitely going to get content portability very

soon. That's the thing about taking your existing content abroad with

you. It is less far how the Commission is going to go with this.

I don't think it knows itself. It is still being debated. The defence of

the media companies really true. The media companies say if we split the

market up territorially, we can earn more money for creators and if that

argument stands up, maybe the Commission won't go the whole way.

Jane, welcome back. MI5 is rated the best workplace for employees

equality. This is the Stonewall list of the best 100 employers for

lesbian and gay staff. MI5 topping that list? It is great news. If you

go back some decades they used to dig out homosexual people because it

was illegal and it could be used as blackmail, it is wonderful that we

have come to a different part of the spectrum. It is right that the

people who work for MI5 have got to represent the communities they live

in. There is no use in having people looking like James Bond when you are

trying to find intelligence from different... They don't look like

James Bond, Jane, is that what you're telling me. James Bond and

Johnny English. He would be extremely visible if he was trying

to do undercover work in some communities. It is quite a

scientific process, it is not just that they have a notional group that

is supporting lesbian or gay staff. There are strict criteria that have

to be met by the employees who make the list? That's right. If we talk

about MI5, but we can talk about other big organisations at the top

of the list including the Metropolitan Police, the Royal Navy

and again these are old institutions. It suggest that is

they have been deliberately and very successfully trying to change their

ways. It is a success story. Let's talk about OPEC now. It is claimed

we've defeated the shale revolution. This is in the Times newspaper. I

remember last year talking about this, you know, middle of last year

when the sort of start of the oil price slide began and we all talked

about the problems this would cause for shale producers where it is so

much more expensive to get the stufs out of the ground? The Saudis and

the Middle Eastern OPEC players have done this. Now, it does seem from

this report, that they were trying to focus on the shale producers.

Shale, of course, being a new... On what grounds? They are still

operating. If you look at the amount of debt and if you look at the

likelihood that some of these companies will go into default,

that's really quite significant. I was looking at the S and P data. It

said that last month around about 50% of energy junk bonds are

distressed. In 2015 they said many of the companies in the US were

being subsidised because they were running at a loss and this year some

would go? It is not just in shale. Metals and mining because those

prices at multiyear lows as well, it is not just oil. This is what Saudi

wanted to do. They wanted to be the dominant player and what had

happened over the last 25 years, there had been more investment and

other types of supply of energy and of course, that meant that there was

less power for the Saudis. A brief word before time is up on motor

insurance forming an alliance to tackle driverless cars. Whether or

not this is add and good story depends whether you are an insurer

or consumer. Premiums could go down by 80% in 25 years time. But from

the insurer's point of view, loss of revenue treatens their business, so

they are getting together to see what they can do about it. Liability

for accidents could shift from the driver to the manufacturer when

things are automated. It will be interesting, who do you blame if you

crash if it is a driverless car? The lawyers are usually the ones that

come out with plenty of work! We're back tomorrow. It is Davos.

See you soon. Hello. We're stuck with the cold

weather, but where you had the lowest temperatures overnight, here