19/10/2016 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News with Sally Bundock and Rachel Horne.

China's economy is ticking along with growth at 6.7%,

but what about the country's mounting debt problem?

Live from London, that's our top story on Wednesday, 19th October.

China is fuelling the move to consumer-driven economy

Also in the programme, and not such a Hollywood ending,

box office superstar Leonardo DiCaprio says he's

cooperating with an investigation into Malaysian state fund 1MDB.

Minister kets in Europe don't know which direction to go. They were up

and now they're down. We'll talk you through the winners and losers.

And we're talking wine - the UK's oldest merchant

Berry Brothers and Rudd started popping corks more than 300 years

ago and have been supplying the UK's Royal Family since the 17th century

- we'll ask the boss how the company is staying relevant and keeping

So today we want to know - if you can't make

money at the bank would you invest it in your wine rack?

It is never too early for a glass of good quality wine on Business Live!

New growth figures from China has added to a raft of indicators

suggesting the Asian powerhouse is becoming addicted

The world's second largest economy grew at an annualised rate of 6.7%

As we've been reporting, the country's growth rate has slowed

significantly since hitting double digits five years ago.

It is now at its slowest rate

The figures underline China's difficulty of transforming

the economy away from factories and exports towards consumption

to help drive up wages and living standards.

Now while government debt in China may appear to be relatively low,

corporate debt stands at a worrying 145% GDP.

One of the major issues is that State-owned businesses actually

account for more than half of that debt pile and Chinese banks are now

holding more and more loans from those companies that are either

in default or close to being in default.

We can cross live now to Shanghai and speak to our

Robin thank you for joining us. The figures seem to give the impression

that China's economy is stabilising, but is there anything else going on

behind the scenes? Well, it is still growing, but still slowing is the

overall picture. What we have is an economy where there is evidence that

the Chinese Government through its policies seems to be stabilising the

big picture and managing to shift away from an investment-led economy,

focussing on exports and towards a more consumption-led domestically

driven economy. Consumption accounting for over 70% of growth in

the last quarter. That's a big jump on the similar period in the year

before. So that is something that the Chinese Government will be very

happy about, but dig a bit deeper and it is a familiar story.

Infrastructure investment from central Government ticking up in

that same three month period. That's evidence yet again that perhaps the

fuel, the significant fuel in this engine of growth, is still money

coming from central Government and being filtered down to provincial

Government in big infrastructure projects and that's something that

China is trying to move away from, but not too quickly because, of

course, here in communist China Government spending is still so, so

dominant. Robin, quite often when we talk about China and we look at

Chinese figures, there is a question over the reliability of the figures

that are issued, what's the feeling about today's figures? There is

consistent criticism and eyebrows raised about the accuracy, even the

veracity of figures like this. The Chinese Government won't like it.

There has been criticism in the past of media like us and others who

question the statistics, but look, for three-quarters in a row now, the

Chinese Government has released official figures showing that growth

is at exactly 6.7%. It is very close to the official Government target of

between 6.5% and 7.5% growth overall for 2016. They have never had this

back-to-back consistency before and many people suspect that it is just

frankly too good to be true. Just last month the former chief

economist at the IMF told the BBC that he thought a truer figure was

around 3% growth in this country. So look, we raise concerns and we ask

questions about the figure, but the Chinese Government insist they are

accurate, but there are many who see this, three-quarters in a row, spot

on 6.7%, it is convenient, isn't it? Robin Brant, in Shanghai, thank you

very much for joining us this morning.

Yahoo's profits more than doubled to $163 million in the third quarter

The numbers provide some reassurance to investors after it was revealed

that 500 million customers had their accounts hacked.

These are the first financial results since Verizon

announced its plan to buy the tech company for $4.8 billion.

Shares in Sharp have risen by more than 10% after the loss making

Japanese company announced it expects full year profits

to "improve significantly" compared to last year.

The electronics firm was snapped up by Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn

for $3.5 billion in July after going through two major

South Korean prosecutors are reportedly poised

to file corruption charges against the chairman of one

of the country's most influential conglomerates,

It's alleged Shin Dong-bin, together with his father and brother

committed offences worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

There is a lot going on on the markets this morning. Some

eye-catching movers on the London markets. We can see some shares are

down. BHP Billiton down 0.7%. That's despite the fact that some commodity

prices seem to be coming back up. Falling commodity prices have been a

story for the last year or so. BHP Billiton seeing early signs of

market recovery. Oscar-winning star Leonardo DiCaprio

says he is aiding authorities with the ongoing investigation

into Malaysian state Christine Hah is in Singapore

and has the details. Well, as you know the Department of

Justice in the US filed a civil suit back in July. They want to get back

about $1.3 billion which they say is money that came from the Malaysian

state fund and channelled into US assets like paintings, luxury

apartments, a private jet and investment into the Leonardo

de-Capri owe's film The Wolf Of Wall Street, even though he's

co-operating, when he won a Golden Globe he personally thanked the

people implicated people in the suit a the person who runs the production

company. So a little bit of life imitating art there! Very

interesting. Christine, thank you very much. The plot thickens on that

story. A mixed picture in Asia, but I have

to say, markets around the world really relieved about the numbers

coming out of China. Robin mentioning some of the challenges

and scepticism about the numbers still. There was no surprises or

shocks. So Japan and Hong Kong, everywhere else relatively flat. We

had the oil price heading upwards. Let's look at Europe. Just to have a

sense of how things are going. All headed south at the moment. Rachel

rattling through the winners and losers for the FTSE 100. Of course,

we've got the UK jobless figures coming out later today. We will talk

about the issues in Europe in a moment.

Samira Hussain has the details about what's ahead on Wall Street Today.

The third and final US Presidential debate takes place on Wednesday in

Las Vegas. It will be moderated by Fox News and the topics will include

debt, entitlements and the immigration and the economy. Lots of

companies will be reporting earnings on Wednesday. In financials, we will

hear from Morgan Stanley and like other big banks, Morgan Stanley has

been cutting costs to try and make up for lower profits. Oil companies

Kinder Morgan and Hallliburton will be reporting earnings. The two have

been hit by low oil prices and falling demand. And finally, online

retailer eBay saw traffic from online searches increase for the

first time in nearly six quarters. Attracting more shoppers to its

website. And that will be welcome news for investors who will be

looking for updates on the company's outlook ahead of the holiday

shopping season. Sue Noffke, UK Equities Fund

Manager at Schroders. We will look at UK figures. Lots of

figures out for the UKment we had inflation figures out yesterday, up

1%. A steep rise. Unemployment figures due out today. What are we

expecting and how is sterling reacting? Well, I think, everyone is

trying to pick through the figures to find that evidence of Brexit. And

what was interesting in yesterday's inflation data was that we weren't

seeing very much other than the rise in oil which has been independent,

but of course, it is priced in dollars. So that's been adding to

inflationary pressures from a very low base. If we look to employment

data, this will be the second most post the decision to leave the EU

that we get. Last month's figures were surprisingly steady. So it is a

question of do we carry on in this steady vain or do we start to see

some of the business nervousness that's been talked about actually

come through in the figure as soon as Some of the fears is about

inflation, is about the weakness of the pound, all these things and the

effects it will have on the UK economy and that jump in inflation,

more than expected, kind of fuel those fears a bit, do you think or

not? No. I think we know that it takes sometime for sterling's

depression to feed through into the inflation numbers. I think it is

around what policy responses are we going to get? The Bank of England

tends to look through any increase that comes from currency moves

through to inflation. In terms of holding monetary policy fairly

steady. I would expect that's what the Bank of England will do this

time as well. What we will have to see is what happens to wages and

employment. Because if we start to see wage pressures and that feed

through on top of sterling's depression to inflation then I think

the Bank of England has a tougher job to do. OK. Sue, those figures

out at 9.30am UK time. So out in 45 minutes. I wouldn't want to be Mark

Carney right now or Philip Hammond for that matter!

Still to come, what makes a winning wine?

We'll be speaking to one of the UK's oldest merchants to find out.

You're with Business Live from BBC News.

The jobless figures are out in 45 minutes time.

Official figures this morning will show how many

people are out of work - with the government pushing

companies to do more to recruit workers from within the UK.

Many businesses say they are doing just that.

Victoria Fritz is at one such factory in Birmingham with more.

Hello there. Yes, that's right. They're currently a record number of

people in work in Britain. Over 31 million people in Britain actually

have jobs. Over 28 million of those are UK nationals which leaves about

3.5 million that are classified by the Office for National Statistics

as non-UK nationals and it is that group and the businesses that employ

them that have found themselves at the centre of a fierce debate over

immigration, economic immigration and whether or not there should be

restrictions to who can apply for jobs in this country? Now this

company, it is a factory in Birmingham. It makes cooling systems

for everything from buses and coaches to things like military

vehicles as well. It is exporting to 28 countries across the world. About

22% of the business is actually staffed by people who were born

overseas and the boss has been telling me that without that mix, he

would face skills shortages right across the business from here on the

shop floor all the way up to the level of senior thermal engineers.

He says without that mix, without access to people from across the EU,

and elsewhere, he wouldn't be able to develop next gun ration products

things like the thermal systems that are going to go into the next

generation of electric vehicles. So he's concerned about some of the

comments that came out from the Tory Party conference earlier on in the

month that there maybe some kind of restriction on access to people from

abroad. This is an issue that's a very emotive, it is an emotive issue

as well as a practical one and one that's been discussed by businesses

from the shop floor through to management level across the country.

Those employment figures are coming out at 9.30am. So stay tuned.

That was Victoria. We've got results in from Hotel

Chocolat. Their revenue is up. The top story today: the Chinese

economy is growing at a rate of 6.7%.

analysts warn it could be storing up problems for the future.

Let's have a look at the markets. The European markets slightly in the

red. The figures from China gave a bit of stability. We can see that

they are trading ever so slightly down. Keep an eye on the pound. It

might move. Now, it's time for Inside Track

and today we are focusing Berry Bros Rudd is one

of UK's oldest businesses. Founded in 1698 -

the merchant started supplying Britain's royals with wine

during the reign of King George III - and are still the official

suppliers to Buckingham Palace. Today, Berry Bros sells a range

of over 3,000 wines that are sourced from over 25 countries

around the world. Statistics based

on a survey conducted by Wine Intelligence show that 25%

of the UK's nearly 30 million regular wine drinkers ordered wine

on the internet last year. So is this the future

of wine-selling? Dan Jago, Chief Executive

of Berry Brothers and Rudd is here. Good morning. We paused the question

about how important the Internet is. Were you the UK's first merchant to

go online? Yes, back in the early 90s. It was pretty revolutionary.

You could order wine online and have it delivered. We are still doing

that today. The way you came is an interesting story, you had gone to

Tesco as wine director and then you went to Berry Bros. How did you find

it crossing the fence? I've not worked out whether it is put your

turned gamekeeper or the other around. -- poacher. I worked with

Tesco, and when I was told, do you want to take on the biggest wine

buying job in the world it was quite hard to decline. Very different

businesses. One was about entrepreneurialism and the other was

about consistency. But in both cases it has been customer focused. Most

retailing is about customers and people. It is interesting you should

say that. In the news at the moment there is talk of tension between

suppliers and supermarkets, especially with the devaluation of

the pound and what that means. Take us through that. We always get the

impression the relationship is not good between Tesco and suppliers.

The buyer and the seller will always have a convert of relationship. --

combative relationship. I really enjoyed it and our suppliers

realised we were a business aiming to do the best job for customers. We

have enthusiastic negotiations with our suppliers for similar regions.

Let's talk about sterling. It has been falling. Have you felt the

impact? It has been marginal so far. If you go back a few years the

exchange rate was roughly the same. It is not somewhere we've been

before but the speed has caught everybody by surprise. It is going

to have to happen. If we get stability we will predict for the

future. Most of your sales are for individuals. Just over half. Two

used order wine for them and people can sell each other's wine. We have

a unique thing called PBX. It is an exchange. We have a lovely shared

down in Basingstoke. It is very glamorous. -- storage facility. We

keep wine there and we allowed customers to sell to other

customers. We want to know about Buckingham Palace. What are you

allowed to tell us. It's just down the road. Quite close. We want to

know about their drinking habits. My chairman, the seventh generation

chairman, is keeper of the Queen's wine cellar. I'm sure he's not

allowed to tell anything. He doesn't tell me anything! But we are very

proud of having a warrant and we have had it since the 17th century.

What is the most expensive wine you've got? We've got a Magnum of

Burgundy for ?16,000. I think it is a collectors item. So little of it

was made and it is a wine that everybody wants. We could talk for

hours. Thank you for your time. Throughout the week we've been

hearing personal stories of workers and entrepreneurs who are driving

what is known as the gig economy. Over the last year Brazil

has seen a huge jump in its unemployment rate -

and this type of freelance work has helped many

there to keep earning an income. We hear from two people who say

the gig economy is working for them. I love the fact that she can stay at

home with her dog. We ask you at the beginning of the programme, you

invest in the finer things? Interest rates, some of you have been getting

in touch. We've had a tweet from Sonia seeing she would invest your

money in guilt tracker funds. Andy says peer-to-peer lending sites have

been around since 2006, at the time they were seen as very

revolutionary, now it's a standard recess. One of you did mention wine.

We should have spoken about that with a guest. We've got Dominic

O'Connell with us. Good morning. We're going to start with this story

on sterling. It says the pound could crash a further 10%. We've seen it

down 19% against the dollar. Still further to go? Could be. If you look

at the history of the pound it has had this ever since the Second World

War, and a typical correction has been around 25%. If you look at that

then it does not look out of order but yesterday it had the best day

since the vote. There will be a lot of flip-flopping around as we go

through this political process of negotiating the terms. One report

yesterday was that Parliament would get the final vote, that gave it the

best day. If Goldman Sachs is right, what impact will it have? You will

see what we had last week, more of that. This thing of imported goods

being more expensive and falling living standards. Her first speech

was, I'm going to improve living standards. If, in her first year,

living standards fall, that's a political problem let's move on to

Yahoo. Earnings more than doubling. The market expectation comes after

this big data hack. Everybody thought it would send people

scurrying away from them. It has not happened. It may be too early to

tell. Some analysts said it will have checked they have not been

compromised. I think Yahoo is benefiting from customer inertia.

People don't pay much attention to these reports. More interesting,

they are about to sell the online business, the bit we think of as

Yahoo, in America. But the most valuable bit is the 15% stake they

own in Ali Baba from China. Let's talk about these reports that the

CEO of Nissan Renault could be on the move. What do you do to the man

who is chief executive of the biggest car companies in the world?

You give him a third. Nissan is about to buy 30% of Mitsubishi. It

has all was been the weakest of the Japanese car-makers. It will happen

after a board meeting in December. They need to be turned around. The

comings and goings. Watch this space. Thanks for coming by the

studio. That's it for another day. We're back tomorrow. See you soon.

Goodbye. It looks like a pretty reasonable

day across most parts of the United Kingdom. Some showers in the

forecast but most places for most of the claim will have a reasonable day

with some spells of