01/08/2012 World Business Report

drive opposition forces out of the second-biggest city using heavy

weapons. Now for the latest financial news with Alex. All eyes

on the American Federal Reserve today, it begins its 2-day policy

meeting. Will there be some kind of economic stimulus announced? The

boss of Sony tells us his company is hoping to catch up with Samsung

and Nokia in the electronics race. With the US recovery faltering, all

eyes will be on the American central bank. The Federal Reserve

rips up a 2-day interest rate meeting on Wednesday. Financial

markets would like them to announce another round of asset purchases.

They need to stimulate the economy. But with the slowdown weighing on

President Obama's hopes of election, action by the Spain could be

controversial. The decision is made in Washington and when it comes the

quantitative easing is carried out at the New York Federal Reserve.

Nobody's expecting staff inside the building to begin another round of

asset purchases after the meeting wraps up later this Wednesday. Many

on Wall Street think that America's central bank will put of that

decision until September. What can we expect to happen? Since they

last met, the American economic picture has darkened. Manufacturing

and retail sales figures have been a lot weaker. The American jobs

picture is bleak. After that, worries about the knock-on effect

of wires in Europe on the United States and weakening growth for

China and India and the situation facing Ben Bernanke and his team

has a lot riskier. The thinking is that the Federal Reserve will

choose to push back the date of the next interest rate hike. In the

past, they said the first rate hike would not happen until late 2014.

That may not happen until 2015, leaving rates at a low level, much

longer than anyone had expected. General Electric is one of

America's largest corporations working in sectors from energy to

Healthcall -- care. We asked the general manager how the what is

worried -- how worried he is. Companies are accustomed to an

emerging well that is volatile but offers growth. You have to invest

more to be successful. If you do planning, not assuming a double dip,

they will not be any magic wand. They will make Europe or America

better. You have adjusted your company to that. That is the best

policy you can have. A lot of until after the American elections.

How difficult it's it for you to make decisions on collections.

We'll big enough to power through. The small company sees no reason to

invest in Europe and America. There is more your audience. We need to

get certainty for more of the developing parts of the world. For

the small and medium enterprises, the governments are not giving

these people any stimulus to invest. How worried are you about events in

Europe? It is a difficult process it is going through. Everybody is

worried. I am a business Kyoko -- so the politics have to be dealt

with quickly and in a robust fashion. Europe will be around.

They will be a market that will be important overtime. We want to make

sure we will be well positioned for when it gets reformed and

restructured. What companies to is what governments have to do. You

have to learn to cut costs and invest at the same time. We have

always been comfortable with that. A more signs that the world's

second-biggest economy is slowing down. The Chinese manufacturing

index fell to an 8-month low in July. It is the decline in new

orders of Chinese factories confirming exports have been hit by

the slowdown in Europe and the US. Manufacturing activity falling to

its lowest level in eight months, renewing lots of fears about a

slowdown in the Chinese economy. Any reading above 50 indicates an

expansion, any reading below means a contraction. Economists had

expected the economy to pick up in the second half of this year. One

of them said the numbers are not that bad. It does indicate an

expansion after all. The data today increase his chances that China

will introduce more stimulus measures. The leaders of the ruling

party say they would keep adjusting polities to try to ensure stable

growth. They described the external environment is posing lots of

difficulties and challengers. There was a separate index released after

the official statistics, indicating that manufacturer may have

contracted at a slower pace in June. This has all painting a different

picture from the official data. That survey covers 400 companies.

It is weighted towards smaller businesses. It is not just the

Olympics that are attracting businesses to London. The UK

government is using the biggest sporting event and the will to

bring together top agencies to do deals and win business. Japan's

Sony is -- has in the past produced game changing gadgets like the

PlayStation. We caught up with the head of sales -- Sony and asked him

whether he was happy with the company's efforts to get back on

top? The turnaround is encouraging and stimulating. We have had very

bad luck with Ms fortunes and earthquakes. We have turned the

company to a new generation. That is very important to modernise Sony

as it moves from an analogue world to a digital world. I'm encouraged.

30 years ago, it was the global leader with electronics. Now we

have Android and not here, what you do about the competition?

Everything moves very quickly. We were a fine leader three years ago.

We did not have Google. We lead in many different areas. Sony is like

a giant department store. If you go into a movie theatre you will see

Sony equipment and a movie projectors. There are not pure sine

products. We have 900 products. If you concentrate on smart phones,

you'll notice we will do well in something else. We excel in cameras

more than we did before. You have to hedge your bits and go in

different directions. The smartphone will make other

businesses more difficult. You have to adapt to change. He could be on

top one minute and not the next day and be back on top a minute later.

Does Sony have a different problem that it is too diversified? You

have to focus on specific areas, how do you find a niche? You try to

find a winning strategy. Now we are very dominant with camels. The fund

Danish we could add to. They're very strong with components and

image sensors. The image sensor makes the iPhone successful. The

innovation that Sony uses it goes in many different ways. That is why

the flood was difficult, because we make so many components for other

companies. The into it relationship with other companies are is

interchangeable. You cannot pin it down with one single problem like

you did in the 1970s and 80s. stocks mostly down. They are mixed.

The regional benchmarks index was down. The debt crisis in Europe