18/04/2012 World Business Report

marked by a parade. Those are the headlines. It is time

for the money news. Here is World Business Report.

The headlines: Putting Tesco back on top - a $1 billion shake-up is

in store for the giant. Asian stock markets down on Spain's

debt outlook. Battling to avoid a bail-out:

Spain's regional leaders are under pressure from Madrid to cut

billions from education. It is Britain's biggest retailer,

and number three in the world. Recently, Tesco has been losing out

to its rivals. This year was the first in living memory... Today it

announces its annual results. It is expected to reveal a 1 billion

dollar shake-up of its business. Once it was the supermarket that

could do no wrong. At Christmas, customers were not impressed with

Tesco's price drop. Now the chain is promising to scale back the

development of giant stores and a concentration on putting staff back

into stores. Tesco may be a giant of food retailing but it is

relatively small when it comes to selling other items. Today it

announced plans to improve its online business, allowing customers

to order via an application on their phone, and collect those

orders in store. At the moment, many customers use Tesco's online

service for groceries. To really expand, Tesco needs to sell mobile

telephones or a kitchen appliances. Then it comes up against the likes

of Amazon. It will be difficult to put these items online... I think

it will be a challenge for Tesco. It will be a challenge, Joe, for

Phil Clarke who took over one year ago. Can this new blueprint win

back customers? Can he restored Tesco to the growth it wants new?

The financial markets in Asia have been given a boost. -- growth it

once knew. 3.5% from 3.3% - that is one of

four factors giving Asian markets a big lift today. We also have the

successful Spanish bond auction which eased fears about Europe's

debt crisis, a big help for investors in Asia. A boost in Wall

Street stocks and investors are more optimistic about the rest of

the US burning season. The IMF released its global growth outlook

for the first time in more than a year and finally we have

improvement in a key German sentiment survey. This has boosted

investor confidence in risky assets. You have Japan, Australia, Taiwan,

they are all living up more than 1%. The Philippines appears to be

Asia's best performer. It ended the day on a record high. We are also

watching another set of Spanish bond options on Thursday. If it

passes without a problem investors are likely to become more committed

to risk taking once again in Asian equity markets.

In an attempt to show financial markets that it has control of the

public purse, the heads of all the regions in Spain are meeting with

the central government later. They will confirm how they will meet 7

billion euros of savings in healthcare and 3 billion euros of

cuts in education. Spain's autonomous regions account for

about a third of its spending. Some of them are so badly in debt they

have not paid public service contractors for months.

In a former industrial park in Barcelona, people's cars have

become their homes. It is the social impact of Spain's economic

crisis. This man lost his job at a bakery. He says he is getting a

little help. Then there are other small businesses like this shop in

Madrid. A final sale before it closes down. The owner says that

little by little, the crisis has destroyed his trade. TRANSLATION:

Three years ago, this catastrophe, this famous crisis. It has led to

us little by little to this final state. It has finished on his back

off. Small businesses across Spain are struggling to survive -- it has

finished us off. There are toxic asset problems and low growth.

TRANSLATION: Austerity isn't enough, Spain doesn't have a debt problem,

Spain has a growth problem. The problem of growth is not being

addressed. That is what the markets are concerned with. It has been a

tough first few months since took charge in December. The

government says its reforms will help Spain get its budget deficit

target for this year. The IMF is predicting that Spain will only hit

its 3% of GDP target for next year it in 2018.

As you have been hearing, it is 100 days until the opening ceremony of

the Olympic Games. London 2012 is said to be one of the biggest

commercial events in the history of sport. More than $1 billion have

been raised from more than 44 sponsor companies including Adidas,

BMW and British Airways. They are also 11 global sponsors who pay $11

million each for one winter and one summer game. It is big business. We

are speaking to the former director of the International Olympic

Committee. Nice to have you here. It is a very strong brand. Yes. The

Olympics are probably healthier today than they ever have been. 25

years ago they were almost bankrupt. No cities wanted to host them. Now

you have the greatest cities in the world chasing them. This will be

the first game in a social media environment - that poses enormous

challenges. Overall I think his experience will allow people to

become much more engaged. It is new territory, just as Sidney was with

the internet. People are still learning to understand how this

will impact the commercial environment. How are they managing

that? Of course, there is the whole issue within the Olympic village -

those who are there to watch the athletes could all be tweeting or

sending pictures, sending videos, all sorts of things. How do you

manage that? That is probably the biggest issue. Stopping the

athletes acting as journalists when the rest of the athletes are

competing. The Olympic village was always supposed to be a sacred area

to leave the athletes in peace away from the media. Now with the other

athletes in their tweeting there is a risk that they will be

commentating on what everyone is doing. The Olympic Committee will

play some rules - they will tell the athletes they are free to tweet

on their own experience, but when they are in the village, they have

to respect the privacy of the other athletes. We will see how that

plays out. What about this guerrilla marketing - ambush

marketing? Where companies are trying to associate themselves with

the Olympics but they are not actually supporting the team or the

games. There are strict guidelines and rules, there has been for 20

years now, to protect the funding mechanism of the Games and the

exclusive rights of its partners. We will watch this with interest.

Thank you for coming in. Some Other stories: Italy will

unveil another forecast this year, they are expected to reveal a large

a contraction of the market than expected....

Warren Buffett has revealed he has been diagnosed with early-stage

prostate cancer. The 81-year-old billionaire said his condition is