31/05/2017 BBC Business Live

track to remain the fastest-growing economy in the world. Why from

London, it's our top story today on Wednesday the 31st of May.

India removed nearly 80% of bank notes from circulation but it hasn't

so far dented growth. We'll explain what happened and get the latest

figures from the Indian government a little later today.

One leading charity says half of all gamers have been harassed or

received threats. Markets are looking like this. The pound has

fallen sharply after fears that the Conservatives might not get the

majority in the general election that many are thinking may happen.

Hi Claire Castle may be better known as the filming location for down to

Gnabry but it's also home to Europe's most successful horse

racing ownership company. We'll get the inside track with Harry Herbert.

And it's been revealed the Bank of England's staff have been studying

Dr Seuss to brush up on communication skills because he has

been described as a master of using simple language. With like to know

what business language you think would benefit from the Dr Seuss

treatment. We promise no jargon here on

business Live. India has retained its crown as the fastest growing

major economy in the world. Economists are predicting Indian

economy grew by 7.1%, that's in the first three months of this year. But

would be faster than China which is currently at 6.9%.

The resilience of the Indian economy will be welcome news

for Prime Minister Narendra Modi following the country's landmark

That was when - at the end of last year -

the government removed around 86% of all banknotes from circulation

It led to widespread disruption and queues outside

banks and cashpoints, but the shock announcement seems to

And there could be more good news for the Indian economy next month

when consumers will see major tax reforms.

From July, all purchases will fall under a single "goods and services

tax" and that's lower the average rate charged now.

Sameer Hashmi has been following the story

You've been witness to those huge queueing and chaos that interviewed

after the banknotes were withdrawn. Many are expressing surprise about

these growth predictions, given how badly small businesses in particular

suffered. That's right. If these figures as estimated turnout to be

true it will be a bit of a surprise. The impact was huge after 86% of the

notes were banned especially small and medium-sized businesses were

badly hit. There are two reasons for these good numbers. Now the

government is using a new methodology to measure GDP. Just

explain that in simple terms, industrial output, the way they were

measured until now, didn't accurately capture the total picture

across the country. The government says the new methodology is going to

give a much clearer picture. Analysts say the new methodology is

more favourable when it comes to big businesses and doesn't reflect the

true picture when it comes to small businesses. That's why the number

that will come out today is going to be on the high side which is

expected to be 7.1. This figure is also for the period of January to

March which is when the real impact March which is when the real impact

took place. I was talking to one analyst who told me that if the

government would have measured this data, how they have been doing all

the while, the number wouldn't have been lower than that. Most are

expecting 7.1. The government says it introduced this radical measure

to try and cut down on corruption. Is there a sign this has happened

and what impact has there been an inward investment as a result? It's

still too early to say that the whole exercise has had any real

impact on corruption. The reason the government went ahead with that move

was because there is a lot of unaccounted wealth in this country,

which means a lot of people don't pay taxes. The government was trying

to bring all those people into the banking system so they can crack

those people and whether they are paying taxes or not. So far, the

data the central government has, it doesn't really give us exactly how

much of the money that was sucked out of the system was unaccounted

wealth. The tax authorities are still trying to chase people who

have declared investments, on how much amount they didn't pay the

taxes. It's still too early to say. As far as investments go, the

government has taken a lot of steps but private investment is still low.

Public spending has been driving the economy forward. Thank you for the

update. Let's take a look at some of

the other stories making the news. The pound has fallen more than 0.5%

against the dollar after a new poll found that the ruling

Conservative Party could fall short of an overall majority in next

month's general election. Previous polls suggest

Prime Minister Theresa May and her Conservative Party

would massively Shares in online retail giant Amazon

have risen above the $1,000 Back in 1997, the firm

listed its shares for just $18 each. The rise in share price now values

Amazon at $478 billion, Amazon is now the fourth-largest US

company, behind Apple, Uber has fired the engineer accused

of stealing secrets from Google's parent company Alphabet

after he failed to assist Anthony Levandowski,

previously worked on self-driving car technology at Waymo,

owned by Alphabet. He is accused of downloading 14,000

confidential files before leaving Uber denies it is using

stolen technology. Manchester United is the most

valuable football club in Europe, According to figures from KPMG it

puts it ahead of Spanish giants The study looked at broadcasting

rights, profitability, popularity, sporting potential

and stadium ownership. In the study of 32 teams,

English clubs dominate, If you're buttering your toes this

morning or making your sandwiches, butter consumption is rising

sharply. The cost rising 40% because wholesale prices are up more than

80%. That's because of global demand for butter. Everybody loves the

yellow stuff around the world. I like the quote, "I think the move

back to butter is only going to grow".

An investigation has been launched into the leak

of details of a new bank levy, which led to sharp falls in the

Tell us more about this leak and the bank levy. It all goes back three

weeks ago and the budget in Australia, with a surprise

banks. A surprise but not completely banks. A surprise but not completely

unheralded. In the 24 hours before the budget, they started to

circulate, it was reported the night before and the morning off in

different media. It seems that led to a big sell-off in shares of the

four big banks. Regulators say they want to check whether there was any

short selling and they want to know the provenance of the leak, how this

information reached the media before the Treasurer stood on his seat in

Parliament. The chair of the committee saying, we will hunt this

down, trying to make sure no one has profited from having this

information before it was made public. The levy is still

controversial, the banks still trying to fight it off. Thank you

for staying across that for us in Sydney.

Shares in Japan down slightly on Wednesday following that weaker

lead from the US and falling oil prices dragging down

We'll talk about that more in a moment.

But the story has been that fall in the pound after a new poll showed

Minister Theresa and the ruling Conservative Party in the UK risks

falling short of an overall majority in next month's national election.

The vote in Britain, political uncertainties in Italy

and doubts over debt relief for Greece all weighing

More on that in a moment, but first let's head Stateside

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

Happening on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve, that is America's Central

bank, will be issuing its Facebook. This is a collection of anecdotes on

the help of the economy that is taken from the central bank sources

across the country. It will likely show the US economy is continuing to

gain strength, as the central bank prepares to raise interest rates

again, possibly as soon as the next meeting which happens in just a

couple of weeks. In earnings news, you would think that cyber security

firm would be doing pretty well these days especially in the wake of

so many ransomware attacks. But the firm Palo Alto Networks is expected

to report a fall in profits when it reports on Wednesday. The company

has faced rising competition in a hotly contested industry and is

struggling with issues with its sales force.

Maike Currie, investment director at Fidelity International.

We are talking about the market movements in more detail. It seems

as though its political concerns that are driving market sentiment,

particularly when you see how sterling is performing. Absolutely.

The election was expected to be a blip on the radar. The result was

going to be a foregone conclusion, Theresa May was going to increase

her majority in Parliament and that would enhance her Brexit-lite go

shooting hand. Now that seems to have changed, and it's weighing on

the currency. Now the pound is much weaker which is good news for the

FTSE 100. It's a stock market of overseas owners and if the pound

weakens that's good for those overseas exporters. This is only one

poll saying there could potentially be a hung Parliament. How much

confidence should investors have in polls given what has happened in

previous elections? The polls do get it wrong and of course, betting on

currencies is a zero sum game. While a weaker pound is good news for the

FTSE 100, it's bad news for the FTSE 250, the stock market of

medium-sized companies that optimistically focused. The best

thing investors can do is ignore the short-term noise. Quickly, what

happens if she doesn't get the big majority, what does it mean for

Brexit? It means that we could have a hung Parliament and that means

that the whole Brexit negotiating process, which is already clouded by

uncertainty becomes more uncertain. That will weigh on markets. Markets

height and macro hate uncertainty and Brexit is a huge unknown.

We meet the man behind one of Europe's most successful

horse racing companies and ask just how you buy

You're with Business Live from BBC News.

We're all feeling a bit more confident about the future,

but still worried about the economy, according to the latest data.

Research says rising inflation is proving a worry

Joe Staton is head of market dynamics at GFK.

You carried out this survey and people are still feeling quite

optimistic. Do you think that is justified? It is interesting, we

have done this survey since the 70s, on behalf of the EU so we have a

long track record on what consumers are feeling and behaving will stop

this is a consumer what we think and feel, not Mark Carney, Angela Merkel

telling us what to think and feel and what is interesting there is

still a lot of confidence. Your last presenter talked about uncertainty,

in the face of uncertainty, there is a high degree of consumer confidence

in the data we are reporting. Should we be surprised by uncertainty

because there are so many things going on at the moment it is hard to

know which way the economy is headed. How do you navigate that? I

think what is going on, there is hard data, GDP data, and soft data,

such as the consumer confidence survey we run. What is going on is

the two are matching. We see a level of confidence. It is just bumping

along the negative. After Brexit we saw it dropped dramatically, minus

12. The lowest it has been is the low 30s, during the beginning of the

last financial cycle. Consumer confidence is depressed but stable.

Not jumping around as one might expect. OK. Thanks for the update on

the consumer confidence survey. It seems we are generally not

optimistic but not getting more pessimistic. Perhaps because we have

some quite good numbers as far as exports are concerned. Excuse the

picture. This is salmon. One of the things we sell around the world. The

first three months of the year. Exports are up by 8.3%, ?4.9

billion, that is the largest first-quarter figure on record so

good news as far as exports from the UK are concerned. Details on the

website. You're watching Business Live -

our top story - official figures are expected to show that India has

retained its crown as the fastest Economists are predicting that

India's economy grew by 7.1% in the first three months

of the year. We will get those figures later.

This is what Europe is doing at this point in the morning. Sterling down

against the dollar after a poll that suggests Theresa May might not get

the majority expected. But it is one poll and they have been wrong in the

past. Now, you might enjoy a flutter

on the horses from time to time. Maybe at the Grand

National, or the Derby. But what about if you owned

a stake not in a race - Well, our next guest knows a thing

or two about doing just that. He's the founder and boss

of Highclere Thoroughbred Racing. It's one of Europe's most successful

horse racing ownership companies. It was founded in 1992 -

and since then has produced And when the horses do

well, so do the owners. It's raked in nearly

$8.5 million in prize money. Harry Herbert - the boss and founder

of Highclere - joins me now. Hello. Who buys stake in a

racehorse? Just how expensive is it?. As long as you can afford it,

it is how long is a piece of string? Shares go from ?5,000 to up to

?50,000 depending on which syndicate to come into but you can get

involved for a few hundred pounds in a racing club. Owning a part of a

racehorse is exciting and generates a buzz. I worked in Kentucky in the

state said it was just starting there in the 80s. Ownership and

racing of horses becoming more expensive, so their hat to be a

better way to do it and ideally a way that would not take away the

excitement of owning through fractional ownership done well and

with really good management and using the best trainers. That you

could come up with a concept that would make it fun. And he would not

have to spend a fortune. Do you do it as an investor for the love all

the money? The laugh. This is not an investment -- the love of it. If you

are lucky enough to get a really good racehorse and we have been

fortunate with a few champions and other good horses, they are worth an

enormous sum of money. The horse who won the Derby was bought for 75,000

unsold for millions. It is possible but you do not come into a syndicate

and thing, I am just going to have Dobbin. What is the relationship

like, do they become friends, do they fall at? We treat everybody as

if they own the horse out right. The amazing thing is you can put the

most abstract group of people together and the horse, it is the

glue that binds everyone together. Naturally people say I won't know

anyone, it might feel like I own the horse but it is the opposite. You

see people who would never meet in everyday life having the best time

imaginable. And they trot into the winner's enclosure together?

You talk about the highs and lows but your job involves tears. Job

satisfaction of seeing may be a FTSE 100 company chairman, chairwoman,

big is this person, in floods of tears when a horse wins. It brings

out an emotion that is completely alien to most people. It is

primeval, I think. It is the best part of the job. Just to say, they

are tears of happiness. Mostly tears of happiness, there are a few tears

of, oh, my God, not again! Is why the Queen does it, and so on. What

has it been like to see how Highclere Castle has been

transformed from when you were trying to sell cream teas to

renovate the building to now a global phenomenon? It is incredible.

My brother and sister-in-law, they run it now and have done for

sometime. I was involved and it was incredible. The transformation

between hanging baskets, cream teas, to suddenly having amazing events at

the castle and opening up the corporate angle. Movies. Tom Cruise

there, Nicole Kidman. The first cricket match South Africa played

was a Highclere. It has been phenomenal and Downton is a game

changer for Highclere and any stately home that get something like

it. Thanks for coming in. Best of luck.

New research shows that abuse and bullying in video games

The anti-bullying charity Ditch the Label said one in two gamers it

spoke to had been bullied or received threats.

Here's our technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones.

For 16-year-old Bailey, video games have been a big part

of his life and were once an escape when he was getting

He enjoys pitting his skills against other players online,

but what he doesn't like is the abuse he sometimes

He first experienced bullying in games when he was ten and it's

If I'm playing a game and I score a goal, I've literally been

If you're being bullied at school, you come home and play your computer

and you are just getting more abuse thrown at you.

It's just going to put you off doing anything social.

The charity Ditch The Label surveyed 2,500 young gamers.

57% said they had been subjected to hate speech in an online game.

47% had received threats and 40% had had unwanted sexual contact.

What's changed over the last decade is that more and more games

are played online and that means young gamers are encountering

anonymous people from around the world and chatting with them.

That can, of course, be very positive, but it also lays them open

for the kind of dangers we've seen elsewhere in the online world.

The anti-bullying charity worked with the online game

Habbo Hotel to research young gamers' experiences.

I think what's so shocking is the fact that it's

We had gamers telling us this was just part

Bailey says he has now learned not to let abuse get to him,

but he wants the games companies to do more to watch over

what happens online and to act to stop the bullies.

We can now talk through some of the stories in the business pages. We

have asked people to get in touch about the story Bank of England has

used children's books for lessons in clarity. It is fair to say that

financial sector has jargon words. I love this story because there is so

much jargon and dry language used. And it was the former deputy

governor who said they studied Dr Seuss to see how they could use

simpler language to engage the public. At a time of political

populism, this is the way forward, to engage people. Maybe without the

tongue twisters. I am used to reading Dr Seuss to my children and

at times it can be quite complicated.

A very good point. They talk about the quarterly inflation report, it

is about that thick and a challenge to get through it. It is about

telling stories simply. That is so important. To get people to engage

with finances, that is the only way. Mobile phones. There is a proposal

in London on the Underground you might be able to use your mobile

phone and some people around the world will find it astonishing that

you cannot at the moment where in Hong Kong and parts of China it is

the norm. I quite like not being able to use it on the Underground.

It is downtime. The tube is where you see people reading a book, not

senselessly browsing on their phone and playing games. There are flip

sides. We should probably have technology on the tube because

places like Paris and Tokyo have had it for years but the downtime is

valuable. Nobody speaks to you on the tube and if you have nothing to

read, you are a bit stuck. Gary says, I cannot stand business

jargon. Ice for redundancy. And in voluntary career event. Let's get

rid of that. Thanks for your company today. We will see you tomorrow.

Good morning. It was a cold start today across northern parts