:00:05. > :00:15.the RBS does not look good. The forecast for eurozone growth is
:00:15. > :00:17.
:00:17. > :00:24.with the financial news. This is World Business report. These are
:00:24. > :00:32.the headlines. RBS is set to reveal another massive loss stoking fresh
:00:32. > :00:38.controversy about bonus payments. Port earnings from Hewlett-Packard
:00:38. > :00:48.impact South Korea and Taiwan. After weak data for February,
:00:48. > :00:52.
:00:52. > :00:58.growth forecasts made suggest a recession for there eurozone. RBS
:00:58. > :01:02.is likely to stoke public anger in the UK reporting another year of
:01:02. > :01:07.multi-million-dollar losses. Spectacularly bailed out by the
:01:07. > :01:12.British taxpayers, around 80% government-owned, RBS reports
:01:12. > :01:16.massive losses for the past four years with reports suggesting it
:01:16. > :01:22.still plans to pay bonuses to executives. The boss, Stephen
:01:22. > :01:29.Hester, who gave in and gave up his bonus says it's making good
:01:29. > :01:32.progress and trying to be smaller and less risky. Once it was the
:01:32. > :01:39.bank that spread its wings so far it was in the business of renting
:01:39. > :01:46.aircraft. Now it comes down to worth and has sold 31 businesses
:01:46. > :01:52.from Argentina to Kazakhstan. $922 billion worth of businesses has
:01:52. > :01:58.been sold off. That's more than many European economy is. The thing
:01:58. > :02:03.that is shrinking is the investment. 5,500 jobs are run the process of
:02:03. > :02:09.going. Wet as they used to make two-thirds of the profits from now
:02:10. > :02:13.on it will make just one per. The man in charge, Stephen Hester,
:02:13. > :02:19.insists he is ahead of Shane Daw in clearing up this mess. He is
:02:19. > :02:26.reducing the risk for the future. We people see the results they will
:02:26. > :02:32.see good support for the customers, strong profits fall on going
:02:32. > :02:38.banking, and big progress and big losses from the clean-up.
:02:38. > :02:41.losses are part be due to the Greek debt and compensation for payment
:02:41. > :02:48.protection insurance. Two questions remain, when will the Government be
:02:48. > :02:52.able to sell its 80% stake? When will they make a proper? If the
:02:52. > :02:58.economy recovers the bank will recover but if it does not it will
:02:58. > :03:03.be sluggish and it's just the way it is organised. Investment banking,
:03:03. > :03:09.retail banking, that emulates the economy. Next on the agenda for RBS
:03:09. > :03:14.is the sale of its huge insurance arm, Direct Line. That will
:03:14. > :03:22.immediately joined the list of 100 big companies in the UK. For
:03:22. > :03:25.British taxpayers, they need a big price tag. Technology shares have
:03:25. > :03:35.been under pressure in Asia after very poor figures from Hewlett-
:03:35. > :03:37.
:03:37. > :03:45.Packard. We are watching them slide. At this point, take a look at Japan
:03:46. > :03:51.and South Korea and Taiwan. The technology sector of shares is
:03:51. > :04:00.struggling after Hewlett-Packard released earnings falling 43%.
:04:00. > :04:09.Revenue was down 7%. Many fear that the suppliers are here in Asia.
:04:09. > :04:17.Samsung is down 3.5%. LG is down 5%. The Japanese set that is not
:04:17. > :04:22.affected as the bad news was offset by the weakening Japanese yen. It
:04:22. > :04:29.depreciated since Feb wary. It's now at a seven-month low. The
:04:29. > :04:38.falling currency is boosting profits and making Japanese
:04:38. > :04:44.products cheaper. Fujitsu has jumped 3.8%. Sharp is up 2.2 %.
:04:44. > :04:49.Nintendo is up 1.6%. The Japanese yen is stumbling due to resit
:04:49. > :04:54.monetary easing by the Bank of Japan. Oil has risen to a nine-
:04:54. > :05:04.month high. There is a worsening economic fundamentals due to the
:05:04. > :05:05.
:05:05. > :05:12.Let's take him back to the eurozone and optimism about the Greek bail-
:05:12. > :05:20.out is evaporating on data about manufacturing showing a surprise
:05:20. > :05:25.fall in activity. Today, we get official growth forecast for the
:05:25. > :05:35.main economies in Europe which may stoke fears for recession. Let's
:05:35. > :05:40.get some analysis. To be honest, there's little reason to wonder why
:05:40. > :05:44.the may be strong growth in Europe anyway? It set me hard to see the
:05:44. > :05:53.growth in the short-term. Its import not to blow this out.
:05:53. > :05:58.Estimates for the one month show small contraction. That's not very
:05:58. > :06:03.different from January. There are risks and we may see her shallow
:06:03. > :06:07.recession in Europe but it's not all doom and gloom. That's quite
:06:07. > :06:13.interesting because although we get these forecasts for the year rose
:06:13. > :06:18.which is relatively pessimistic we also have confidence of business in
:06:18. > :06:25.Germany and they predict confidence at a seven-month high for Germany.
:06:26. > :06:32.Germany is doing better than Greece or Portugal. It likes the currency.
:06:32. > :06:35.German exports are competitive. That's because of the weak euro.
:06:36. > :06:42.The bigger picture is as long as we get some return to growth in
:06:42. > :06:46.Germany and France even modest, and the recession in the eurozone
:06:46. > :06:52.should be relatively small. Remember that Greece is only 2% of
:06:52. > :06:58.the eurozone. His sound quite optimistic. Since Monday many say
:06:58. > :07:04.Greece needs a second bail-out and in a worse case scenario Italy and
:07:04. > :07:08.Spain may spread with the contagion. The end courage in thing about the
:07:08. > :07:12.bail-out is that it will not solve all of the problems but it doesn't
:07:12. > :07:17.buy us time. They do not fix the problem that they buy time to sort
:07:17. > :07:21.it out. It's not so much about Greece in terms of the economy as a
:07:21. > :07:26.whole but it's buying time for Italy and Spain to make reforms and
:07:26. > :07:30.continue to put the economy back on track. Does it push through with
:07:30. > :07:35.restructuring but where does this growth come from where unemployment
:07:35. > :07:40.is very high? UN employment in Spain is high and Italy is under
:07:40. > :07:44.pressure but we hope that these reforms with the liberalising
:07:44. > :07:51.markets and it will be easier for new companies to start up with
:07:51. > :08:01.things like taxi-drivers starting a new business. Natural drive growth
:08:01. > :08:05.
:08:05. > :08:12.but it's hard to see that coming Other business stories, Hewlett-
:08:12. > :08:18.Packard has profits plunging 44% in the last three months with a
:08:18. > :08:26.disappointing forecast. PC sales have slumped as can tumours turned
:08:26. > :08:36.to tablets. -- consumers. That's the first quarter under the new EU
:08:36. > :08:38.
:08:38. > :08:41.The French Bain has recorded a loss of $3.5 billion and has forced to
:08:41. > :08:51.write off billions of dollars of investments in Spain and Portugal
:08:51. > :08:53.
:08:53. > :08:58.as well as winding down businesses Markets with a lot of stories in
:08:58. > :09:04.trade with economic news from the eurozone yesterday and from the US
:09:04. > :09:11.reporting housing in the US was poor are and did not help sentiment.
:09:11. > :09:21.The Japanese yen is weakening significantly against the US dollar
:09:21. > :09:30.
:09:30. > :09:39.and has boosted the fortunes of The Dow Jones was down 0.2%. The