:00:03. > :00:09.BBC World News. And now, a meeting of the ECB in Barcelona, and
:00:09. > :00:16.Samsung watches a bread be productive in London. -- a brand
:00:16. > :00:20.new product. Hello, and a warm welcome. You are
:00:20. > :00:24.with World Business Report. The headlines: Pressure mounts on the
:00:24. > :00:29.European Central Bank as the number of eurozone jobless hits a record
:00:29. > :00:33.high. Out Of This World, Samsung unveils
:00:34. > :00:37.its 3G smartphone galaxy, but how will it fare in a highly
:00:37. > :00:40.competitive market? And the US Treasury Secretary calls
:00:40. > :00:50.for China to alter its growth policies and listen currency
:00:50. > :00:51.
:00:51. > :00:54.controls. Good to have you with us. Spanish
:00:54. > :00:59.police have been erecting barricades ahead of expected
:00:59. > :01:04.protests in Barcelona. ECB officials are in town for that by
:01:04. > :01:07.annual meeting outside of Frankfurt. Spain, in particular, is feeling
:01:07. > :01:12.aggrieved by the ECB's refusal to intervene in the money markets to
:01:12. > :01:16.bring down the government's cost of borrowing. There is growing
:01:16. > :01:19.pressure for the ECB to restart its bond buying programme, effectively
:01:19. > :01:29.lending to countries such as Spain at lower interest rates than those
:01:29. > :01:30.
:01:30. > :01:40.offered by wary investors. I understand the ECB is not going to
:01:40. > :01:41.
:01:41. > :01:46.offer much to the Spanish people today? No, I think the ECB will try
:01:46. > :01:50.to keep everything unchanged. No rate cuts, no new operations. We
:01:50. > :01:54.see that the ECB is simply reaching its limits. In terms of the bond
:01:54. > :01:58.buying programme, there is a lot of pressure on it from Spain in
:01:58. > :02:02.particular, Spanish politicians talk about it a lot. Tell us how
:02:02. > :02:09.the ECB makes its choices as to when and why it might buy Spanish
:02:09. > :02:13.or other bonds for that matter? you look back at the last two years,
:02:13. > :02:17.when they did it, it has always when the tension was very high on
:02:17. > :02:21.bond markets. That was when the ECB decided to intervene. They thought
:02:21. > :02:25.interest rates were simply too high, were unjustified, and they
:02:25. > :02:30.intervened. But the thing is, it did not work for a long time. It
:02:30. > :02:33.only had a short-term impact on markets, because after two or three
:02:33. > :02:38.days, investors realise there were still debt problems in Greece,
:02:38. > :02:43.Portugal or, right now, in Spain. So, as you say, the impact of it is
:02:43. > :02:47.very short-lived, but the LTE are road, the cheap loans for banks
:02:47. > :02:53.issued by the ECB, that did seem to have a better impact, as you say,
:02:53. > :02:58.people are looking for a third round of that - will they give an
:02:58. > :03:04.indication today that that might be on the agenda? I think they will
:03:04. > :03:08.open the door again, because it is a way to encourage him direct Bond
:03:08. > :03:12.purchasing, and a much easier way for the ECB to do it. It is also
:03:12. > :03:16.much easier to sell to the German Central Bank, so again, providing
:03:16. > :03:20.cheap liquidity for the banks which could then in turn by Spanish or
:03:20. > :03:25.Italian bonds. It is not the time right now, but I think they will
:03:25. > :03:28.open the door again. What is your take on the risks of this way of
:03:28. > :03:32.increasing liquidity? Because many people argue that actually, the
:03:32. > :03:42.risks are too high, and given the uptake last time in February, what
:03:42. > :03:45.was it, one to have in euros or something? -- one trillion euros.
:03:45. > :03:50.Yes, they raise the risk for the ECB, which takes more risk on its
:03:50. > :03:54.books, and there is also the risk that if a lot of liquidity comes
:03:54. > :03:57.into the economy we will see inflation. But right now, I think
:03:57. > :04:02.this risk is very small, because inflation is probably the sports
:04:02. > :04:11.concerned we should have in a situation with the eurozone economy.
:04:11. > :04:15.It is in a recession. The risks are there but they are limited risk.
:04:15. > :04:21.Thank you for your perspective. The ECB is expected to keep interest
:04:21. > :04:24.rates in the eurozone at 1%. Society Gerard is reporting
:04:25. > :04:28.earnings sure be. The French bank is expected to say its profits fell
:04:28. > :04:31.in the first three months of the year. Fears about the debt crisis
:04:31. > :04:36.in the euro area have dented trading in shares and bonds,
:04:36. > :04:39.reducing earnings. They have also hammered the group's share price.
:04:39. > :04:44.Nonetheless, the bank is forecast to have earned about $1 billion at
:04:44. > :04:47.the start of this year. Another fall in profits is likely
:04:47. > :04:51.at metro, the world's fourth- biggest retailer, which is a victim
:04:51. > :04:55.of the downturn across Europe. Shoppers are cutting back on all
:04:55. > :05:00.but essential purpose -- purchasers as the number of people out of work
:05:00. > :05:03.its record highs across eurozone. Even in the company's home country,
:05:03. > :05:08.Germany, where the economy remains relatively strong, the number of
:05:08. > :05:11.unemployed is rising. US Treasury Secretary Timothy
:05:11. > :05:21.Geithner has again called on China to raise the value of its currency
:05:21. > :05:21.
:05:21. > :05:27.against the dollar. There is a lot of contentious issues being tackled
:05:27. > :05:32.with this visit, tell us about this one. Indeed, many contentious
:05:32. > :05:36.issues, and this one, of course, is the usual refrain.
:05:36. > :05:41.Timothy Geithner said this at the 4th annual round of the Strategic
:05:41. > :05:45.economic dialogue, which just began today, and, of course, he is also
:05:45. > :05:50.calling on China to change essentially its export-led growth
:05:50. > :05:54.policy and focus more on domestic consumption. He said that of course
:05:54. > :05:58.that shift was very necessary to sustain China's economic growth in
:05:58. > :06:02.the future. China may be the world's second largest economy, but
:06:02. > :06:06.it relies heavily on exports for growth, and a slowdown in key
:06:06. > :06:15.markets such as the US and Europe is raising a lot of fears about its
:06:15. > :06:18.growth prospects. The US is always searching the Chinese to further
:06:18. > :06:22.appreciate their currency, even though China has loosened its
:06:22. > :06:27.currency peg and allowed it to rise nearly 8% against the dollar in the
:06:28. > :06:31.past two years. US policy makers argue that it is still undervalued.
:06:31. > :06:35.Of course, over the years they have often accused Beijing of keeping
:06:35. > :06:38.the value of the currency artificially low to try to help its
:06:38. > :06:43.exporters, saying that such a move, of course, gives Chinese businesses
:06:43. > :06:48.an unfair advantage. It hurts American firms and the American
:06:48. > :06:51.economy as well. China, in its defence, said that a sudden
:06:51. > :06:55.appreciation of the yard will not only hurt its exporters but will
:06:55. > :07:05.also have an impact on its overall economy. -- appreciation of the
:07:05. > :07:09.yuan. We will keep an eye on that visit.
:07:09. > :07:15.Now, new figures show that Samsung has shipped to an industry record
:07:15. > :07:20.of 42 million smartphones this year alone, a whopping rise of 267 % on
:07:20. > :07:25.last year. In fact, a recent report suggests that Samsung, already the
:07:25. > :07:31.world's biggest mobile phone maker, is about to overtake apple as the
:07:31. > :07:37.world's largest smartphone sell-off. -- cellar.
:07:37. > :07:41.The market for smartphones has exploded in the last year. Samsung
:07:41. > :07:47.posted a record profit in the first quarter of 20 12th, which pushed
:07:47. > :07:51.the company passed gnocchi as the world's leading mobile company. One
:07:51. > :07:56.of the company's reading success stories was the series of
:07:56. > :08:00.smartphones, which almost as stripped apple's iPhone.
:08:00. > :08:05.Launched here at Earls Court in London, the new Samsung Galaxy is
:08:05. > :08:10.set to be the official handset of the London 2012 Olympics. Sam
:08:10. > :08:15.sonship 20,000 galaxy handsets every award for the first three
:08:15. > :08:21.months of the deer, giving it a market share of 30.6 %. Apple,
:08:21. > :08:24.however, have a slightly less impressive 24.1 % of the market.
:08:25. > :08:28.With smartphones taking on more characteristics of computers, it is
:08:28. > :08:32.not so much the comparison of individual handsets that will mark
:08:32. > :08:37.out the winners and losers, but what they actually offer. The
:08:37. > :08:41.industry has already defined what the handset looks but consumers
:08:41. > :08:46.need to be inspired by the services they can use. Services like the
:08:46. > :08:50.drop box and the cloud. We are not really seem much evolution in the
:08:50. > :08:55.design of handsets, because we have pretty much got there. It is a big
:08:55. > :08:58.screen, it has a better camera on the back. Now, really, the
:08:58. > :09:02.innovation, and this is what we are expecting to see from Sampson this
:09:02. > :09:06.week, is what people offer in the cloud - the services, the software,
:09:06. > :09:10.the support for the handset. Samsung is positioned to expand
:09:10. > :09:14.quickly in a number of new segments, due to the sheer volume of the
:09:14. > :09:17.devices it manufactures. The company's huge amount of cash is
:09:17. > :09:22.also about it to research and develop new technologies quicker
:09:22. > :09:29.than his rivals. It is, perhaps, the only company that can now give
:09:29. > :09:33.Apple a run for its money. Now, the markets today are being
:09:33. > :09:37.tracked down by the news at of the US yesterday, and also from Germany
:09:37. > :09:41.and eurozone economies, that the number of people out of work is
:09:41. > :09:46.growing. For the US, it was that the number of people back in work