15/11/2017 BBC Business Live

Airbus signs a $49.5 billion

contract to supply 430 aircraft.

Live from London, that's our top

story on Wednesday, 15th November.

The deal marks a dramatic turnaround

for Airbus as it battles

for supremacy with its

arch rival, Boeing.

We'll assess what's at stake.

Also in the programme,

Japan's economy grows

faster than expected.

We'll cross to our Asia

business hub for the latest.

This is how the European indexes

look at the start of the trading

day. All of them down a fair amount,

tracking losses in Asia overnight,

David.

Office revolution - we'll talk

to the man who thinks getting

you to stand up at work could be

the key to better health.

Take away coffee, eating out, cinema

treats, we want to know what

luxuries have you cut out to save

money?

Let us know.

Just use the hashtag BBCBizLive.

Hello and welcome to Business Live.

We will get to the environmental

summit in Bonn in a minute

but we want to bring you some

breaking news from Zimbabwe.

Explosions and gunfire have

were heard overnight

in the capital, Harare.

Military vehicles appear

to be on the streets,

but for now the situation

remains confused.

There are even reports

that the Finance Minister is amongst

many people detained.

The Army denied this is a coup. It

hasn't used that phrase. It says it

is targeting criminal elements. So

it is trying to restore order. It

has taken over the crucial TV

station there. One of the main TV

stations and read out a statement,

but they are trying to reassure

people, they said that the

president, they describe him as

their excellency, the President

Robert Mugabe is safe and well. We

will keep across that and we can get

the latest from our correspondent.

Milton Nkosi in Johannesburg.

What we know is that the Zimbabwean

capital is quiet, but tense. There

are troops in particular key areas.

They are guarding government

buildings and the Parliament and

there are reports that there are

troops guarding President Mugabe's

residence. We also know that the

Army made an announcement at 4am

local time this morning and they've

taken over the Zimbabwe broadcasting

corporation building. And explained

quite clearly that this is not a

coup and that the president is safe

and sound together with his family.

Milton, this follows some rather

turbulent political movements in

Zimbabwe. We saw the Vice-President

sensationally sacked suddenly, he is

a long time ally of President Mugabe

and what looked like the positioning

of his wife, Grace Mugabe, as about

to take on the role of

Vice-President, possibly of

potential successor to the

93-year-old Mugabe?

Yes, you are

correct. This seems to be the

trigger of what we have been

witnessing in Zimbabwe in the last

24 hours or so is the idea that

there was some sort of system of

paving the way for President Robert

Mugabe's wife, Grace, to take over

as Vice-President and eventually as

head of state and a lot of the

people in the army, who fought in

the liberation struggle against

white men in order to rule under

Rudisha, feel like a person like the

sacked Vice-President, being sacked,

is redressing those gains that they

made in the liberation struggle.

Milton, thank you. Apologies for the

quality of the sound on the line.

There's also some breaking news

in the aviation industry.

Airbus has just signed a deal worth

$50 billion to supply 430 jets

to an investment company.

It's a huge boost for Airbus

which has been struggling

against its great rival Boeing.

Theo Leggett has joined me.

To say it's huge it almost an under

statement. It is as big a deal as we

have seen?

In terms of lifts prices

it is the biggest order Airbus has

taken in. Airbus likes to save up

its orders for the air shows and the

Dubai airshow is under way. This is

an order for A320s and A321s. They

are the work horses of the airlines

fleet, they are used by budget

airlines. It is the most recent and

efficient model and it is very, very

important and it helps Airbus get

over one thing which is at the same

time as these aircraft are selling

very well, it has not yet managed to

get a new order for its A380

superjumbo which it was hoping to do

at Dubai.

A side track from a

problematic story. Good for Airbus.

Where are they all going? They are

not being bought up by an airline as

such?

No, they are bought up by an

investment company which will lease

them to airlines. The order will be

distributed between four airlines,

so they are aimed at the budget

sector. What is interesting here

though is that Airbus already does

have a very big backlog of jet

orders. It didn't necessarily need

to get new orders in the can except

for reasons of prestige and we will

have to wait and see whether the

size of its backlog now, its back

order book, which is over 6,000,

causes it any problems in the

future.

You have to imagine, Theo,

if you're going to shift 400 plus

aeroplanes, someone is going to get

a good discount out of this?

We have

this headline price of $50 billion.

In fact, it will be substantially

below that because of the size of

the order. So, often when we get the

orders, they are not actually at

list prices.

OK, Theo, thank you

very much indeed.

Let's take a look at some of

the other stories making the news.

The Venezuelan government says it

has begun repaying interest

on its foreign debt after two major

credit ratings agencies said

the country had partially defaulted.

In a televised address,

the communications minister

Jorge Rodriguez also said

the government is renegotiating

all of its foreign debt.

Taiwan's Foxconn, the world's

largest contract electronics

manufacturer, saw quarterly profit

slide 39% - a result

far below estimates.

It's been widely attributed

to production issues

for Apple's iPhone X.

The product has been a success,

but has faced a string

of production hurdles centered

on new technologies and features.

Japan's economy has logged

its longest period of growth

in more than a decade.

Data out this morning shows

the world's third largest

economy posting yet another

quarter of gains.

Leisha Santorelli is in Singapore.

So, some pleasant surprises there.

Was it what was expected?

It was

better than expected, Benl. So seven

straight quarters of economic growth

is an impressive feat not just for

the Japanese government, but for

analysts. A lot of the credit goes

to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Let's

recap the numbers. Preliminary GDP

rose by an annualised rate of 1.4%

in the third quarter which as I said

beat market forecasts and this was

due to a big jump in exports. Now,

this has to do with the weakening

Japanese yen and there is greater

demand from overseas of Japanese

made cars and machinery and other

goods. There was a negative point

from today's data and that was the

fact that consumers spending fell,

but Japan's economy minister said

this was due to the effects of bad

weather. So it is probably just a

seasonal blip. Looking forward

though, Japan's economy does face

serious structural problems. This

includes a rapidly ageing and

shrinking population and so all eyes

are now on how Mr Abe and his

government plan to say tackle that

and he is expected to unveil a

multi-trillion yen economic stimulus

package by the end of the year.

Thank you very much.

Asian stocks tumbled on Wednesday

after a weaker crude oil price took

a toll on Wall Street. They tracked

the losses. The euro kept big gains

after enjoying a boost from some

robust economic growth data out of

Germany. A batch of data from China,

that is Australia's biggest export

market, showed the economy cooled

further with industrial output,

fixed asset investment and retail

sales missing expectations. You can

see the impabt of that. All three

major stock indexes dipped on

Tuesday. As Again Electric plunged

for a second straight day.

And Samira Hussain has

the details about what's ahead

on Wall Street Today.

On Wednesday the US Labour depth

will report on the growth of

consumer prices in October.

Economists expect that consumer

prices will have moved up 0.2%

compared to 0.1% in September. Now,

these numbers known as CPI is a qe

measure of inflation. Two companies

reporting earnings that are worth

mentioning. Sisco Systems will

report a fall in revenue. Now it is

being hurt by continuing declines in

its traditional business of making

switches and routers and Target will

likely report a boost in sales as

the retailer has been launching

private label brands ahead of the

holiday season. In investors will

have a keen ear for any news on

sales going forward as the company

faces fierce price competition.

Joining us is David Buik

from Panmure Gordon.

A lot of data out today, European

and British.

Following through more

from yesterday we had the inflation

number coming in and confirm at 3%

with some sort of confirmation

that's about the top of it because

when the value of the pound against

the dollar fell from 150 at the

stroke of a pen or a heartbeat on

23rd June last year down to 125, it

was going to take some months before

inflation come up from 0.5% which is

where it was then to 3%. We

genuinely believe that now this is

ironed through and we seem to have

found a level of 130 against the

dollar and whether that can be

maintained with the political

weakness of the Government remains

to be seen. If it can, the general

feeling is that inflation will be

nearer 2% than 3% than by the middle

of 2018. What came in which was

unhelpful in terms of the UK economy

was growth rates. Europe is really

flying, 2.5% against the United

States at 2.3%. And the UK at 1.5%.

The UK is down in my opinion through

lack of confidence and lack of

investment as a result of Brexit

obviously. And also the fact that we

have a very weak government that

seems to be having some problems

organising things in a manner that

brings things to a sensible

conclusion. What's driven it very

well, of course, is Germany which is

up 0.8% and that on an annualised

rate was 3.5% and France and Italy

doing very well, whereas we seem to

be languishing.

David, thank you

very much indeed.

Still to come, is standing up

in the office the key

to better workplace health?

We'll talk to the man

who thinks the answer is yes.

You're with Business

Live from BBC News.

House-builder Barratt has given

a first-quarter update on the back

of mostly positive recent reports

from its rivals.

Let's get more from our business

correspondent Theo Leggett.

Let's get more from Philip

Hampshire. How are they doing?

They

are doing well. They have seen an

8.4% rise in their sales come

through, that's a significant lift

for them. It takes them to £2.88

billion worth of sales, Barratt

Homes, of course, is one of the

national based developers. They are

not one the regional based companies

based in London like Barclay Homes

so they have managed to escape the

slowdown there have been in sales

within the metropolitan district by

spreading themselves nationally

around the country. They are

concentrated in the lower end and

the mid-end of the market place and

where we have seen a cooling off in

the UK housing market is in

extremely high value properties,

anything worth over £1.5 million.

So, Barratt really seems to have

managed to have threaded the needle

here.

Philip, how are the markets

taking this?

Well, the markets don't

seem to be taking it so well. It is

very early days right now. If we

have a look at this. This is the

share price of Barratt over the

course of the last three days. You

can see that they had a light up

come through to where the earnings

came out, but in the early part of

trading so far, they are down by 1%,

taking their shares to 6.21.5, that

does belie the picture course of the

last 12 months. If you look back

over the last year, you would have

have seen Barratt Homes share price

up by 33%. People have been talking

about the prospect of a bubble, of

there being too much money in the

British housing market for many,

many years now. So you might be

surprised to see home builders have

gone some of the best performing

stocks in the market place over the

course of the last 12 months and

Barratt has been no exception to

that rule.

Philip, thank you very much. Philip

Hampshire for us in our business

newsroom.

There is more on all the stories on

our Business Live page. It is

updated throughout the day. On there

right now, a couple of stories to

pick out. TalkTalk falls into the

red during the six months to 30th

September. It reporteded a pre-tax

loss of £75 million, that's compared

to a profit last year. It seems

Angel Delight is back in fashion! It

helped Premier Foods rise.

You're watching Business Live -

a record-breaking deal is announced

in the aviation industry.

Airbus signs a record-breaking

deal worth $50 billion

to supply 430 aircraft.

Is sitting really the new smoking?

Spending too much time

on our posteriors has been described

by some as a disease -

encouraging sedentary lifestyle

habits which cause poor health.

In fact, it's been suggested that

3.2 million people each year die

because of physical inactivity.

One area of focus has

been our working spaces.

Sales of so-called standing

desks have soared -

and are projected to reach

$2.8 billion by 2025.

But the research is far from clear.

One study analysed the amount

of time people spent sitting -

and found it didn't make

death more likely.

Joining us now is Pete Segar,

the boss of Ergotron.

His company designs

and builds sit-stand desks.

You're not exactly a Johnny come

lately, either. We are hearing about

it now but you have been around a

while?

That's right. We were founded

in 1982 by a gentleman named Harry.

He was a salesman and he had

actually sold the first electronic

reservation systems to American

Airlines. He went into his account

and he found employees hunched over

their computers developing back

injuries and neck injuries and

duplicate nice it is a fundamental

problem with computers. They're not

made for the human body and he

founded the company as a result. We

have broadened it to all elements of

health and productivity for computer

users.

Some people will say this is

a bit of a fad and people way will

say things like it will come and go

and then we will revert to what we

have been used to - are you seeing

that at all that people try them and

then always use them in the seating

position perhaps?

You know, there's

different levels of adaption by

people who get these desks. But we

have done a number of independent

studies which have shown that users

of sit-stand desks report greater

comfort, less lower back and neck

pain. They also report feeling more

alert, more attentive, more

productive at work. So, these are

things that people are looking for.

So, we actually see people using

their sit-stand desks.

I think the

message is loud and clear - we

should be doing more. It is not

good-looking stuff, is it, though?

It is clunky gear?

Well, it may

start that way. What happens is at

the very beginning, the first

products might be a bit more

utilitarian, but as we progress

we're making the products

aesthetically pleasing, fitting

better with the modern office and

looking attractive.

There was one

person I met recently, a director at

the Science Museum, who has a

treadmill in his office with a desk

on top of the treadmill - is that

where we're going? Is that the kind

of push that you would like to see?

You know, no. It might be a surprise

to you, while a treadmill does

promote activity and discover some

great to use one at work, it also

negatively impacts your ability to

type accurately and it does not help

your computer productivity. I think

a model which really makes sense is

to have a few shared use treadmills

that can be used for example by

readers.

One reason I referred to

the treadmill is, we are told about

sitting for too long is not good for

you, we get that, but an awful lot

of us now also take it upon

ourselves to get out and go to the

gym, to fitness after work or before

work, we're finding ways to fulfil

the need to exercise?

That is one of

the real big surprises in the

research that has recently come out.

We all felt that 30 minutes of

vigorous exercise would be all we

need for cardiovascular health. The

recent research is saying, no, it's

actually periods of long inactivity,

sitting still for more than 30

minutes, is also damaging. And you

just need to move.

I hope it is not

a generational thing, but you quite

like standing up, don't you?! I love

sitting down! I'm much more

comfortable this way so it takes a

bit of persuasion! So I guess, is

there any sort of kit which gets you

moving without having to be on your

feet all day, especially if you've

got flat feet?

Really the key is

moving between positions, frequently

moving. You don't have to stand.

Walking, standing meetings, all

sorts of things which introduce some

level of activity into what is

currently a sedentary activity.

I am

interested where your biggest

markets are, where do you see most

interest and where do you see your

company growing in the future?

Well,

we see strong growth in Australia,

New Zealand, Europe and also the

Americas, is where we have the

strongest growth today.

And

presumably, you're talking about

double-digit growth, what are your

hopes for the next decade?

I would

hope for more than that but I think

double-digit will continue, and part

of the reason is, it does take a

while to change people's lifestyles.

We will see how it goes. Pete Segar,

thank you very much for joining us.

I don't have a standing desk but

what I'd try and do is joke and yet

the teas and coffees. -- go and get

the teas and coffee is.

Let's see what other

stories are being talked

about on social media.

We were talking about TalkTalk on

the Business Live page. In a moment

we will go through some of your

tweets and a couple of the other

stories as well.

But first, here's a quick reminder

of how to get in touch with us.

The Business Live page is where you

can stay ahead with all the latest

business news from the BBC's team of

editors right around the world. And

we want to hear from you, too. Get

involved on our web page. You can

find us on Twitter and on Facebook

at BBC business news. Business Live,

on TV and online, whenever you need

to know.

Joining us is David Buik

from Panmure Gordon.

We were talking about this idea that

one estate agent estimate that

millennials could save vast sum

towards a deposit on a house by just

cutting out little daily luxuries?

I

think this is true. When I look at

myself in the mirror I shudder to

think how much I spend on coffee in

a year but it has got to be

£2000-£3000 for the whole family.

The young, of course, have changed

their culture enormously. They have

changed away from buying clothes and

any kind of sartorial elegance, a

razor blade is a real shock to the

system to a young person!

I have no

idea what you're talking about!

And

jeans rather than a suit and people

want to spend money going out and

having a good time and on holidays.

So, they have to make up their mind

what they want to. What is suggested

that apparently over five years you

could save $84,000...

I was only

quoting! Anyone who sees me walking

in will see I always have a takeaway

coffee in my hand!

If I may say so,

you're exceptional because you're

sartorial elegance! Most people

don't! They want to have a good time

and they want to have good holidays.

But get real, if you're always

complaining about you can never get

on the housing ladder, you have to

put in some kind of economy.

You

pays your money...

You takes your

chance!

We have been asking for your

tweets on this. Loads of responses.

This one says, I take buses instead

of the tube. This one says she has

cut back on the internet. She uses

public why five and has also cut

back on TV, car, heating... I

wouldn't say those were luxuries!

And this one says using a reusable

bottle of water, I don't drink

coffee or go to the cinema any more.

Thanks for sharing those little

suggestions with us.

Another

interesting story which is very

close to home for us in as much as

Bond Street is now a more expensive

place to rent for a shop than the

Champs-Elysees?

That's right, it is

now number three in the pecking

order. But there is a real danger

behind this. Just so that viewers

can understand, New York is still

the most expensive, fifth Ave,

Madison, places like that, $3000 per

square foot. Hong Kong is second,

London third, followed by Milan and

Paris. However, I throw caution to

the wind - how long are these rates

going to be allowed to be

maintained, with the internet and

online sales increasing every single

day? I doubt that there will be...

May be the crown jewels still have

that in a way that the provincial

high street...

You've got the

answer. Absolutely, it is a

long-term problem.

That's it from Business Live today.

There will be more business

news throughout the day

on the BBC Live webpage,

and on World Business Report.

We'll see you again tomorrow.