:00:10. > :00:14.Hallo everybody. This is business life.
:00:15. > :00:19.In a surprise move the Japanese central bank takes emergency action
:00:20. > :00:24.introducing negative interest rates in a bid to stimulate the economy.
:00:25. > :00:39.Live from London, that is the top story this morning.
:00:40. > :00:47.Like many other central banks around the world the bank of Japan has been
:00:48. > :00:51.battling sluggish growth, stubbornly low inflation and some volatile
:00:52. > :00:56.markets. What will the latest move bring any results? Coming up...
:00:57. > :01:01.Changes at the top. James Murdoch takes over at sky just four years
:01:02. > :01:06.after his resignation at the height of the phone hacking scandal and we
:01:07. > :01:11.show you the markets. China is up, all is up, Tokyo is up... Stay with
:01:12. > :01:14.us. How much tax should multinational firms pay? It's a
:01:15. > :01:19.dispute dominating the headlines this week and it's not going away.
:01:20. > :01:25.Today we want to know if you think enough is being done to make
:01:26. > :01:34.companies pay what is due. Use the business life hash tag.
:01:35. > :01:42.What's going on. Welcome to the programme. Let's go to Asia, a
:01:43. > :01:46.surprise move, the bank of Japan narrowly voting to introduce a
:01:47. > :01:52.negative interest rate policy. Like many other central banks as I
:01:53. > :01:55.mentioned, Japan has been struggling with sluggish growth, stubbornly low
:01:56. > :02:00.inflation and volatile market sentiments. By doing this, what it
:02:01. > :02:05.means, it will cost of the banks, the commercial and retail banks in
:02:06. > :02:10.Japan, when they park their money in the central bank, it will charge
:02:11. > :02:14.them 0.1% to hold that money. The hope is that it will encourage
:02:15. > :02:17.commercial banks to lend Bor and stimulate investment and
:02:18. > :02:19.consumption. Of course, all of this in response to global market
:02:20. > :02:23.turmoil, on the slowdown with to get growth back up and running.
:02:24. > :02:48.Let's go to our it out there in the economy and get
:02:49. > :02:51.it working. Indeed, that's definitely the aim, to encourage
:02:52. > :02:58.people and businesses to start spending money again. It is 0.1%,
:02:59. > :03:02.that remains to be seen whether it will work other economists are
:03:03. > :03:06.sceptical. A huge surprise and a huge symbol that the bank of Japan
:03:07. > :03:13.is dry to boost growth. Because, as you say, Japan's economy which was
:03:14. > :03:17.recovering quite gradually, has been seeing slowdown recently because of
:03:18. > :03:23.the Chinese slowdown. It caught the markets off-guard, negate rising by
:03:24. > :03:29.3% and the Japanese yen falling sharply against the major
:03:30. > :03:34.currencies. Everybody is getting a bit of a hit from the slowdown by
:03:35. > :03:41.China. Wide Japan in particular? It seems to be taking a bit of a
:03:42. > :03:48.hammering? China is a major trading partner for Japan but also, as you
:03:49. > :03:52.mentioned, Japan has been struggling to beat deflation or falling prices,
:03:53. > :03:59.that has been the main challenge for the governor over the bank of Japan.
:04:00. > :04:04.This is a move aimed at beating deflation but as recently as last
:04:05. > :04:09.week he said he was not going to introduce any more stimulus so this
:04:10. > :04:13.came as a surprise. It's been dubbed in Japan because he is known to
:04:14. > :04:16.surprise the market, it's the third time he's done it and markets react
:04:17. > :04:21.positively, whether or not it will have a real impact on the economy,
:04:22. > :04:27.that remains to be seen. Good stuff as always, we appreciate that. Talk
:04:28. > :04:34.to you seen. -- soon. We are joined by Bill Blain, and we will talk
:04:35. > :04:37.about what this means. Is there any evidence from the European
:04:38. > :04:44.experiment that negative interest rates work? This is a very good
:04:45. > :04:47.question to ask. I am afraid they are not working at all. What we have
:04:48. > :04:54.seen since the double financial crisis in 2008, or a series of
:04:55. > :04:58.overhasty regulations, new rules on capital, interference with the
:04:59. > :05:02.invisible hand of the market, markets have become less efficient,
:05:03. > :05:07.less good at allocating resources but we've also seen zero interest
:05:08. > :05:12.rates do not stimulate growth. It's very simple to see why. If interest
:05:13. > :05:17.rates represent something cold the time value of money, you give
:05:18. > :05:22.someone money and you get something back by lending that, if that amount
:05:23. > :05:26.is zero tells you that you have no expectations for the future. As a
:05:27. > :05:31.result, what we have seen in the last eight years of zero interest
:05:32. > :05:36.rates has been global business, going out and borrowing some for in
:05:37. > :05:40.the region of $25 trillion from the global bond markets and banks. What
:05:41. > :05:46.have they done that? Have they invested it in new factories, new
:05:47. > :05:50.infrastructure, creating jobs? No, they are going to the stock market
:05:51. > :05:55.and they bought their own start back that pushes their stock up for a
:05:56. > :06:01.short while and what we now see is the world in serious economic
:06:02. > :06:05.crisis. Global trade is crashing, Japan throwing yet another kitchen
:06:06. > :06:10.sink into the equation this morning. The economy is still not reforming,
:06:11. > :06:16.the important third arrow and this afternoon we will get the US saying
:06:17. > :06:23.the global growth in the US, GDP, is lower than expected. Just a few
:06:24. > :06:26.months ago, the US Federal Reserve, the central bank, started to hike
:06:27. > :06:30.interest rates, telling us all they were confident that global growth
:06:31. > :06:36.was about to resume in now, it's looking like it's not. That's a
:06:37. > :06:39.major credibility smashed. As a result, the global markets are
:06:40. > :06:43.looking very weak, confused and slightly panicky. I think we will
:06:44. > :06:49.get to the stage for growth comes back but it's difficult to see where
:06:50. > :06:57.at the moment. Positive note... Thank you. I'm sorry, a bit of a
:06:58. > :07:02.round. Thank you very much. OK... Let's have a drink! I am joking.
:07:03. > :07:07.Let's look at all the other stories making headlines. We call costs and
:07:08. > :07:10.sluggish sales weighing on Honda. The third largest order group in
:07:11. > :07:14.Japan says its three-month profit to December is down 19% year-on-year
:07:15. > :07:22.and short of what the experts were looking for. And how about this. I
:07:23. > :07:28.ran has signed a deal to buy 118 Airbus planes worth $225 billion at
:07:29. > :07:31.list prices of the biggest deals since western sanctions against
:07:32. > :07:35.Tehran were lifted. The agreement was signed during a visit by the
:07:36. > :07:47.Iranian President France and it includes 73 wide and over 40 narrow
:07:48. > :07:55.body jets. Airbus needs those sales. What have we got? You have the
:07:56. > :07:59.tablet. I do, Barbie has a brand-new body, apparently. Mattel is making a
:08:00. > :08:04.bunch of other Barbies with tube body types, Kirby, tall and petite
:08:05. > :08:10.and she is going to be available in seven skin tones, 22 eye colours...
:08:11. > :08:15.Seven skin tones? Really? I mean, I am flummoxed as to how you make 22
:08:16. > :08:23.eye colours. You have brown, blue, green... And 24 hairstyles. There
:08:24. > :08:29.you go. One more story before we go. Some data out from France today
:08:30. > :08:33.about economic growth. Growing its fastest in four years according to
:08:34. > :08:39.official statistics. Would a turnaround after years of
:08:40. > :08:44.stagnation. -- what a turnaround. Good news for the Eurozone. We are
:08:45. > :08:49.getting Eurozone inflation numbers. Sheraton Amazon have tumbled in
:08:50. > :08:53.after hours trading, after the results from the online retail
:08:54. > :08:58.giant, they disappointed. You can never please Wall Street, can you?
:08:59. > :09:02.Not unless you give them cheap money. Amazon racked up quarterly
:09:03. > :09:07.sales of more than $35 billion in the three months to December, up 20%
:09:08. > :09:12.in the previous year, taking annual sales above 100 million for the
:09:13. > :09:18.first time but investors had expected more, sending shares down
:09:19. > :09:23.more than 13%. Say what I did there? I have moved. Let's talk about the
:09:24. > :09:26.markets, the Chinese markets, closing up for the first time in
:09:27. > :09:30.more than four days, some suggesting the Chinese sell-off has been
:09:31. > :09:36.played. The central bank throwing more money into the market ahead of
:09:37. > :09:41.the public holiday. Or is up $35 a bowl, boosted by possible talks
:09:42. > :09:48.between Russia and OPEC. Let's look at Europe. Will that play into the
:09:49. > :09:51.ECB, hinting about more stimulus? If Bill is right, they shouldn't be
:09:52. > :09:56.doing that, but the Russian interest rate decision, the big number... The
:09:57. > :10:02.latest gross number from the US, the world's biggest economy, worries
:10:03. > :10:08.that that is stalling. From the US, let's join Michelle Fleury. In the
:10:09. > :10:12.week when the US central bank said the economic outlook was teary
:10:13. > :10:15.rating investors will look to the latest growth figures for evidence
:10:16. > :10:19.of how sharply at slowing down under, the commerce Department
:10:20. > :10:24.issued its first let's must fourth-quarter gross domestic
:10:25. > :10:27.product this Friday. The earnings parade continues. Chevron, the
:10:28. > :10:31.country's second largest oil producer reporting quarterly
:10:32. > :10:36.earnings. Profits will likely take a hit from the fall in oil prices and
:10:37. > :10:42.the strong dollar is also expected to put a bit of a dent into
:10:43. > :10:46.MasterCard's fourth-quarter profit. Markets will get a chance to react
:10:47. > :10:50.to results from Amazon and Microsoft. The tech giants reporting
:10:51. > :10:55.results after the market close on Thursday. James Murdoch, big story
:10:56. > :10:58.today, becoming one of the most powerful figures in European
:10:59. > :11:02.television by becoming the chairman of Skype. It is the British
:11:03. > :11:09.subscription broadcaster. It comes after four years after he resigned
:11:10. > :11:15.as chairman of what was then known as BSkyB. He quit after news car,
:11:16. > :11:18.his father Rupert's business failed to push through a takeover of the
:11:19. > :11:25.broadcaster. Our economics editor joins us. Good morning. We should
:11:26. > :11:31.forget about Leonardo DiCaprio, the big ribbon and this year is James
:11:32. > :11:36.Murdoch! Very good. James Murdoch was also Chief Executive of Oxford
:11:37. > :11:44.makes revenant... A very big move. -- of Fox. When Rupert Murdoch tried
:11:45. > :11:49.to take another four years ago, sky television in Britain merged with
:11:50. > :11:52.sky Italia and sky Deutschland, numbers out this morning show
:11:53. > :11:57.profits are up, the number of subscribers is up across Europe and
:11:58. > :12:03.Fox is one of the biggest movie makers in the world. James Murdoch
:12:04. > :12:09.now German of sky, Fox has a 40% stake in sky. It will resurrect the
:12:10. > :12:14.notion of will Rupert Murdoch owns Fox wants to try and read takeover
:12:15. > :12:19.sky in its totality? Nothing imminent. That is a very expensive
:12:20. > :12:25.move. What we are getting is a reflection of the big double media
:12:26. > :12:34.players wanting to consolidate and have a real world presence, movies,
:12:35. > :12:37.television, of course, part of river border's Empire includes newspapers,
:12:38. > :12:41.the Wall Street Journal in America, the Times and the Sun newspaper in
:12:42. > :12:45.Britain and I think it's about consolidating. James Murdoch
:12:46. > :12:49.certainly has resurrected his position in Britain and European
:12:50. > :12:53.television which did crash and burn to an extent over the phone hacking
:12:54. > :12:58.scandal in Britain. He resigned, not only as chairman of sky but also as
:12:59. > :13:01.news International Bridge on the newspapers that were embroiled in
:13:02. > :13:08.the scandal. I am really sorry but we will have to leave it there. Can
:13:09. > :13:15.I talk to you later? Good on you. Thank you. Still to come. How much
:13:16. > :13:18.tax should multinational firms pay? It's in dispute and has dominated
:13:19. > :13:20.the headlines this week and isn't going away any time soon. You are
:13:21. > :13:31.with business live from BBC News. I like this... It's the famous four
:13:32. > :13:36.by four, a symbol of British carmaking. It certainly is. Today,
:13:37. > :13:42.after 68 years, the final Land Rover defender will be rolled off the
:13:43. > :13:47.production line. Ben Thompson has been assembling quite a line-up.
:13:48. > :13:49.That's right, an historic day today, the last Land Rover defender rolling
:13:50. > :13:53.off the production line in Birmingham. This is one of the first
:13:54. > :13:58.built in 1950 and one of the 2 million or so and have been built
:13:59. > :14:02.since then. Today marks a milestone in the history of the company. But a
:14:03. > :14:07.lot of questions about why they feel the need to end production of the
:14:08. > :14:11.defender given its popularity. Steve is with me. Good morning. Why are
:14:12. > :14:16.the ending production when it has a loyal following and dedicated fans?
:14:17. > :14:20.A number of reasons, it's a brilliant design, perfect for what
:14:21. > :14:23.it needs to do but time has caught up at that. Emissions problems, it
:14:24. > :14:27.could be re-engineered but that's expensive, it's expensive to build
:14:28. > :14:31.on an old production line and there are safety issues, it doesn't have
:14:32. > :14:36.the latest safety so it can be sold on the markets like the US. We say
:14:37. > :14:41.it's the end of the road but we are expecting another incarnation in the
:14:42. > :14:44.future? Like every great soap opera, the character will be re-born, we
:14:45. > :14:48.will see a new defender and new family of defenders. Thank you. We
:14:49. > :14:51.say it's iconic and an important part of the people who are fans of
:14:52. > :14:55.that so I've been joined by loyal fans of the defender and they will
:14:56. > :14:59.give me a quick sense of why it's important. In one word, what does it
:15:00. > :15:08.mean? Useful. Utilitarian. Adventurous. Different. Timeless.
:15:09. > :15:14.Lifestyle. Versatile. Legendary. Historic. Part of the family.
:15:15. > :15:18.Dependable. The view of the Land Rover defender. Marking an important
:15:19. > :15:23.milestone, the last one off the production line. But from all the
:15:24. > :15:30.guys here, it is by no means the end of the road.
:15:31. > :15:42.Just want to show you this. A little comment but we've heard from sky
:15:43. > :15:47.about this story. The current chairman says he's been in the role
:15:48. > :15:54.since Mr Murdoch stood down and is delighted by the appointment. His
:15:55. > :16:00.deep knowledge of the media will make an even greater contribution.
:16:01. > :16:13.Obviously they are delighted by the prodigal son returning. They are
:16:14. > :16:17.indeed. He is back. The top story, the bank of Japan has slashed
:16:18. > :16:24.interest rates. It is a move that has shocked the markets. Let's get
:16:25. > :16:28.the inside track. How much tax should multinational firms paid?
:16:29. > :16:32.We've heard about this dispute and it keeps rearing its head. It does
:16:33. > :16:44.not look like it is going away at all. The tax authorities struck a
:16:45. > :16:50.deal with Google. George Osborne described the agreement as a victory
:16:51. > :17:00.but John McDonnell said the sums were trivial. Meanwhile, 31 OECD
:17:01. > :17:08.countries agreed new rules aimed that tax avoidance. It aims to stop
:17:09. > :17:18.playing national authorities off against each other. The EU are
:17:19. > :17:22.targeting aggressive tax planning. Among the proposal is a plan to
:17:23. > :17:34.share more information across multiple countries. With us now is
:17:35. > :17:39.our economics correspondent. Shall I go? We need you! Thank you for
:17:40. > :17:46.coming in. We threw a question out, how much should corporations be
:17:47. > :17:50.expected to pay? This person says his company pays corporation tax and
:17:51. > :17:54.those operating in the UK should do so as well and any argument
:17:55. > :18:00.otherwise is baseless. What do you think about that? The general
:18:01. > :18:08.principle is the idea that company tax should be paid in the country
:18:09. > :18:13.where the value added is generated. The kind of things they have been
:18:14. > :18:18.worried about our accounting devices, extra companies that have
:18:19. > :18:33.no purpose other than to shift the prop it is -- shift the profits.
:18:34. > :18:39.Much of the kind of thing, those things we are reporting about, the
:18:40. > :18:50.EU proposals, the underlying idea is to make it easier to pin down with
:18:51. > :18:59.economic activity really takes place. I want to move on, you have
:19:00. > :19:13.done this so many times, I am bored of tax. I want to talk about
:19:14. > :19:17.Azerbaijan. We have talked about the consequences to the oil-producing
:19:18. > :19:20.countries, Azerbaijan, 95% of the money it rakes in comes from oil and
:19:21. > :19:39.gas. This is a serious situation for
:19:40. > :19:43.these guys. It is not the biggest player in the oil market but will it
:19:44. > :19:47.does stand out is it is the first to get a visit from the IMF and the
:19:48. > :19:49.World Bank where they are talking about possible assistance.
:19:50. > :19:58.Has just arrived in the capital and what we've seen is a dramatic
:19:59. > :20:06.deterioration in the government's finances because of this drop in the
:20:07. > :20:11.oil price. It is a quarter of what it was at its peak. We have been
:20:12. > :20:15.reporting things like the Saudi Arabian budgets being changed
:20:16. > :20:25.dramatically. There are growing concerns that some might do. They
:20:26. > :20:33.already have capital controls in place. They have been taking steps
:20:34. > :20:36.to sort the problem out. One of the striking lessons we learned in the
:20:37. > :20:42.course of the financial crisis is how quickly, if you get an external
:20:43. > :20:54.shock of some kind, the position can deteriorate. We saw that with
:20:55. > :21:03.Ireland and Spain. We are seeing the same thing happen with suppliers,
:21:04. > :21:12.things have changed dramatically. Thank you so much. In a moment we
:21:13. > :21:18.will take you through the business pages but first, here is a reminder
:21:19. > :21:22.of how to get in touch with us. You can stay ahead with all the day's
:21:23. > :21:29.breaking news. You can keep up-to-date with all the latest
:21:30. > :21:38.details. We want to hear from you. Get involved on the BBC business
:21:39. > :21:52.live web page. You can find us on Facebook.
:21:53. > :22:06.We are going to talk through some of the... We need to talk about Brazil,
:22:07. > :22:18.the worst recession there for almost a century. They are looking at
:22:19. > :22:25.lifelines for the state-run banks. It is a relatively small gesture,
:22:26. > :22:30.maybe in exchange for a political deal for the president who is
:22:31. > :22:42.obviously trying to avoid impeachment. It is desperately
:22:43. > :22:48.needed by the economy but you've got to question what is going on. Some
:22:49. > :22:52.people think you should spend your way out of a crisis and others that
:22:53. > :23:01.you should save. It seems like Brazil is trying to do both at the
:23:02. > :23:04.same time. It seems like you send conflicting signals and businesses
:23:05. > :23:12.do not know whether to take those risks or not. I'm not sure how much
:23:13. > :23:17.time we have left... Actually, we've got three minutes. We spoke about
:23:18. > :23:24.Azerbaijan, we often talk about Russia. But here is a perfect
:23:25. > :23:36.example of when that cheap money that flooded in, all the
:23:37. > :23:44.commodities, it is hard to see light at the end of the tunnel. It is. Was
:23:45. > :23:48.only to undertake some pretty serious reforms, there is the
:23:49. > :23:51.question of corruption, those investigations going on at the same
:23:52. > :24:00.time, it is hard to see life getting easier for them. Shall we talk about
:24:01. > :24:07.Mark Zuckerberg? We share a birthday. We were born on the same
:24:08. > :24:12.day. However, I am not the sixth richest person in the world, which
:24:13. > :24:17.is the story here. To be honest, it is everywhere. Mark Zuckerberg
:24:18. > :24:23.making a lot of money during his maternity leave. He's done a lot
:24:24. > :24:32.better than I did, I just came back to a lot of e-mails. Does it say how
:24:33. > :24:38.much he made? An extraordinary amount of money, the value of the
:24:39. > :24:40.shares has gone through the roof. That mobile advertising platform is
:24:41. > :24:47.really engaging and consumers are starting to use it. It is actually
:24:48. > :24:54.quite a difficult period for Facebook and is starting to pay off.
:24:55. > :24:59.We had a lot of naysayers, people saying that Facebook needs to learn
:25:00. > :25:07.how to monetise things. It is raking it in. It is beginning to happen.
:25:08. > :25:18.You're seeing that from competitors trying to roll out a similar
:25:19. > :25:21.platform. It is sucking a lot of advertising money away from other
:25:22. > :25:31.organisations. Have we got time for the other one? When the Facebook
:25:32. > :25:38.stock spiked we had Mark Zuckerberg is getting an extra $5.5 billion
:25:39. > :25:44.from that news. Here we are sweating it out on this show. We were going
:25:45. > :25:57.to talk but we will focus on it next week. The possible torque between
:25:58. > :26:01.Russia and Opec. That is it from business live. Plenty more business
:26:02. > :26:18.news throughout the day. See you next week. Blustery day today for
:26:19. > :26:20.many of us, storm Gertrude will sweep across the