:00:06. > :00:16.BBC News. Now for the latest financial news and World Business
:00:16. > :00:20.
:00:20. > :00:26.Report. Welcome to World Business Report. Can the US housing market
:00:26. > :00:34.struck off the gloom of foreclosures?
:00:34. > :00:44.First China, now India. Closer economic links.
:00:44. > :00:47.
:00:47. > :00:53.And what is hot and what is not in technology. We ask the experts.
:00:53. > :00:57.Later today we will get more data on the US housing market. There are
:00:57. > :01:02.signs that American's housing market is starting to improve, but
:01:02. > :01:05.can it last? Since the housing bust many homes have been repossessed
:01:05. > :01:14.and another 8 million are likely to face foreclosure over the next four
:01:14. > :01:18.mac years. We visited one neighbourhood in New York that has
:01:18. > :01:25.been hard hit. In the US more than 6 million homes have been seized by
:01:25. > :01:31.banks since 2006. The suffering has not been shared equally. This house
:01:31. > :01:37.in East New York is the role rather than the exception because the
:01:37. > :01:42.state would have the highest rate of foreclosure in the entire city.
:01:42. > :01:50.Across the road, this property has been seized by the Occupy Wall
:01:50. > :01:57.Street movement. By moving in, they want to draw attention to the
:01:57. > :02:01.plight of homeowners, and the communities they live in. This
:02:01. > :02:05.house has been foreclosed for over three years. It has been illegally
:02:05. > :02:11.used for drug activity and all kinds of illegal activity.
:02:11. > :02:17.increase in crime is not the only side effect. Kids are living at
:02:17. > :02:22.home up longer. The elderly are moving back in with their middle
:02:22. > :02:27.age keeps. You are seeing a different set of household
:02:27. > :02:32.composition. -- middle aged children. For a lot of people,
:02:33. > :02:36.staying in place, or renting right now, makes a lot of sense. Back in
:02:36. > :02:42.East New York, this woman -- this man is pleased with his new
:02:42. > :02:48.neighbours. I love it. Now you have somebody occupying the house that
:02:48. > :02:52.cares about it. They care for the upkeep of the house. The house is
:02:53. > :02:57.no longer NT, but with so many properties still in foreclosure,
:02:58. > :03:04.the year ahead is unlikely to herald an end to the crisis. -- is
:03:04. > :03:08.no longer empty. Following a visit to China, the
:03:08. > :03:12.Japanese prime minister is going till India this Tuesday to hold
:03:12. > :03:18.talks with his Indian counterpart. Let's get more with our
:03:18. > :03:24.correspondent in Singapore. It is expected that the dollar will
:03:24. > :03:29.dominate talks. What are we expecting? That is right. The
:03:29. > :03:34.dollar dominating the talks in quite an unusual way. Japan and
:03:34. > :03:42.India are in the final stages of deciding on a dollar swap agreement.
:03:42. > :03:47.They are expected to reach agreement during the Japanese park
:03:47. > :03:52.-- the Japanese leader's visit this week. They are going to meet
:03:52. > :03:57.tomorrow and it is widely reported that they will agree to a deal up
:03:57. > :04:03.to $10 billion. This means that Tokyo would provide capital when
:04:03. > :04:09.the route he plunges against the US currency. It is all to safeguard
:04:09. > :04:15.against the European debt crisis. - - when the Indian currency plunges.
:04:15. > :04:20.This could hit India's exports. It has already taken a toll on Japan's
:04:20. > :04:25.exports. Doing this might also help Japan as India is quite an
:04:25. > :04:29.important export market for Japan as well. The countries are expected
:04:29. > :04:33.to discuss a whole series of different things. They are
:04:33. > :04:43.discussing a Japanese loan to build a freight railway between New Delhi
:04:43. > :04:43.
:04:43. > :04:47.and Mumbai. Japan and India launched talks in 2010 on a Nuclear
:04:47. > :04:52.Corporation that would allow Tokyo to export some of its nuclear
:04:52. > :04:59.technology to India. But of course the nuclear accident earlier this
:04:59. > :05:02.year has clouded that deal. Thank you very much.
:05:03. > :05:07.The ongoing crisis in the eurozone and sluggish consumer confidence
:05:07. > :05:10.risks sending Britain into recession according to a leading
:05:10. > :05:15.think tank. The Institute for Policy Research says that Britain
:05:15. > :05:19.faces a bleak start to 2012 but suggested any slowdown could be
:05:19. > :05:23.eased by a fall in inflation. That could boost consumer spending power.
:05:23. > :05:26.It has warned the whole eurozone economy could slip back into
:05:26. > :05:31.recession given the need to adopt austerity measures.
:05:31. > :05:38.The worst Nigerian offshore oil spilled been more than one decade
:05:38. > :05:48.has been contained. Officials say an investigation into how the still
:05:48. > :05:50.
:05:50. > :05:57.happened is still ongoing. Saudi Arabia has posted an $81.6
:05:57. > :06:02.billion budget surplus for 2011. Revenues for the oil rich company
:06:02. > :06:11.soared, beating official forecasts. The plans to reduce spending next
:06:11. > :06:15.year. Cuba will expand its small business
:06:15. > :06:18.reforms in 2012 to allow people in a growing number of industries to
:06:18. > :06:23.operate independently. State media reports that private businesses
:06:23. > :06:27.only became legal two years ago, beginning with hairdressers and
:06:27. > :06:32.expanding to many other industries. From the new year the programme
:06:32. > :06:38.will be widened to allow people working in carpentry and others to
:06:38. > :06:41.set up firms. It has been the year when the
:06:41. > :06:45.smartphone ownership doubled and the social networks were used to
:06:45. > :06:50.organise revolutions and riots. We have seen electronic readers take
:06:50. > :06:54.off, threatening the future of the printed book, and a video game make
:06:54. > :07:02.more money more rapidly than any Hollywood movie. We look back at
:07:02. > :07:09.the technology of 2011. London's Olympic Park, where everyone will
:07:09. > :07:17.be looking in 2012. It is a good place to ask to top internet users
:07:17. > :07:23.to ask how technology has changed. First, gadgets. It has been the
:07:23. > :07:28.year of the portable screen. The iPad, the Kindle, the smartphone.
:07:28. > :07:35.have been bowled over by the size of gadgets. Paddlers have gone from
:07:35. > :07:40.the size of the original iPad to something much smaller. Phones are
:07:40. > :07:47.getting larger. We are reading books on wine. The ability to be
:07:47. > :07:52.sitting on it your sofa and just pressing a button and three minutes
:07:52. > :08:02.later is there... We had that there in the past with music. We are
:08:02. > :08:04.
:08:04. > :08:13.It has also been the year when we started to talk to our gadgets.
:08:13. > :08:20.Speech recognition still has its limits. You are an idiot. I respect
:08:20. > :08:24.you. That is nice! I am going to show you some pictures that reflect
:08:25. > :08:29.the technology. It was a year when Blackberry and Sony have to
:08:29. > :08:39.apologise as their services went off line. Social media became a
:08:39. > :08:39.
:08:39. > :08:43.tool for organising everything from revolutions to write. -- to riots.
:08:43. > :08:50.There will be a new form of television, which will be
:08:50. > :08:54.incredibly crisp and clear, a sort of super high-definition. We are
:08:54. > :08:59.looking forward to receiving much faster speeds on our mobile phones
:08:59. > :09:05.when we are out and about. It will not come in next year but possibly
:09:05. > :09:11.in 2013. New ideas continue to change the way we see the world.
:09:11. > :09:19.Predicting the technology winners, though, is as hard as ever.
:09:19. > :09:29.A quick look at the numbers. Asian shares are holding steady.
:09:29. > :09:30.
:09:30. > :09:37.Investors taking to the sideline before US markets open later.