:00:21. > :00:24.News. Now for the latest financial President Obama outlines his plans
:00:24. > :00:28.to boost economic growth but will his formula of increased spending -
:00:28. > :00:31.upping the minimum wage and a revamp of the tax code - get the
:00:31. > :00:34.political backing? Fasten your seat-belts - Peugeot will reveal
:00:34. > :00:44.just how tough things are as the French car maker tries to save
:00:44. > :00:47.
:00:47. > :00:52.money through layoffs and factory closures. Welcome to World Business
:00:52. > :00:56.Report. I'm Sally Bundock. Also in the programme - South Korea's
:00:56. > :01:04.unemployment rate hit a 7-month high in January. The government
:01:04. > :01:07.blames tens of thousands of college graduates flooding the job market.
:01:07. > :01:12.President Obama has outlined his plans to get the US economy on a
:01:12. > :01:15.strong growth path. In the first State of the Union address since
:01:15. > :01:18.winning re-election, he made many promises - some we've heard before
:01:18. > :01:23.- but his overall appeal was to help the struggling middle classes.
:01:23. > :01:31.Are a growing economy that creates good middle class jobs. That should
:01:31. > :01:34.be the start it guides our efforts. How does he propose to do that.
:01:34. > :01:37.Here is a look at his key points on the economy. Obama talked about
:01:37. > :01:40.boosting the manufacturing by creating hubs that will work in
:01:40. > :01:42.partnership with the private sector and create jobs in the high tech
:01:42. > :01:45.industry. He also talked about working with Europe to increase
:01:45. > :01:49.trade. Another proposal to lift households out of poverty is to
:01:49. > :01:51.increase the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour. Obama called on an
:01:51. > :01:54.increase in spending to fix roads, bridges and update schools -
:01:54. > :02:00.something he wants to achieve without increasing the budget
:02:00. > :02:03.deficit. And he touched on the hot potato of tax reform - reducing
:02:03. > :02:10.corporation tax - making the system easier and fairer - calling on the
:02:11. > :02:19.rich to pay more. Michelle Fleury is in New York and has been
:02:19. > :02:25.following President Obama's speech. What did you make of it? It is a
:02:25. > :02:31.top job. We heard him not one what he hopes to do, his agenda for the
:02:31. > :02:35.next four years. An ambitious plan to try to restore what we have seen
:02:35. > :02:40.in America, and increasingly difficult life for middle class
:02:40. > :02:46.Americans. One of the striking things he talked about was raising
:02:46. > :02:52.the minimum wage. The idea that those on a low wage cannot earn a
:02:52. > :02:56.bit more and reduce income inequality which has been a hot
:02:56. > :03:01.potato topping care over the last few years. All this, while they
:03:01. > :03:06.sound great on paper, his hands are tied behind his back because he has
:03:06. > :03:13.very little money to spend and in his speech he said he will do all
:03:13. > :03:18.he has planned without increasing the deficit. It is a tall order,
:03:18. > :03:22.but there was a lot in there to help manufacturing. He talked about
:03:22. > :03:30.bringing companies like Apple back to America. He talked on closer
:03:30. > :03:34.ties to Europe as well? Let us start with manufacturing. In the
:03:35. > :03:37.audience, the boss of Apple was beaming as President Obama
:03:38. > :03:42.mentioned that Apple was bringing manufacturer and jobs back to
:03:43. > :03:47.America. We have heard this before from the President. He's talked
:03:47. > :03:51.about restoring American manufacturing but that truth of the
:03:51. > :03:56.matter is that although some jobs of returning, we are not talking
:03:56. > :04:02.significant numbers. Most Americans work in the service sector.
:04:02. > :04:07.Interesting to see how much of the difference this does make. One of
:04:07. > :04:14.the initiatives they're focusing on his technology centres, the idea
:04:14. > :04:22.being that manufacturing in the future will be more highly skilled.
:04:22. > :04:26.The other the area of interest was trading, he wanted to talk to the
:04:26. > :04:33.US and Europe. Europe is already a huge trading partner for the United
:04:33. > :04:37.States. There is $2.7 billion of trade between these regions on a
:04:37. > :04:41.daily basis. Businesses on both sides of the Atlantic may welcome
:04:41. > :04:46.what they have heard but the key will be in the detail. Can these
:04:46. > :04:54.regions get over some of the disagreements they may have,
:04:54. > :04:56.example on tariffs. Today is the day that French carmaker Peugeot
:04:56. > :04:59.has been dreading - the day it releases its annual financial
:04:59. > :05:02.results. Since the company has been losing a quarter of a billion
:05:02. > :05:05.dollars a month, they're unlikely to be anything better than awful.
:05:05. > :05:12.Peugeot is trying to stem the losses by closing one of its
:05:12. > :05:19.factories and axing 8,000 jobs. But their plans are being opposed by
:05:19. > :05:24.France's most militant trade union, as Jeremy Howell reports. For weeks,
:05:24. > :05:29.members of this union have been picketing the Peugeot works make
:05:29. > :05:33.Paris. Peugeot wants to close it down, redeploying up the stop and
:05:33. > :05:40.laying off the rest. Most of the trade unions here have accepted the
:05:40. > :05:45.move but this union is to find. With one to keep the factory open.
:05:46. > :05:51.We will not wreck the factory. The ones wrecking the place are the
:05:51. > :05:59.directors. The boss wants to close down the factory. Cook show is in
:05:59. > :06:05.crisis. It is losing $250 million a month. Last year its global sales
:06:05. > :06:09.fell by 16%. In 1983, it wasn't a similar state to today but then it
:06:09. > :06:15.launched a car which went on to become Europe's best selling car.
:06:15. > :06:20.It saved the company financially. Recently it has bought out its
:06:20. > :06:27.successor which is currently Europe's 7th biggest-selling car.
:06:27. > :06:32.Can it to turn pressure's fortunes around? Now there are so many good
:06:32. > :06:36.small cars. Lots of small cars coming from Korea, all the
:06:36. > :06:40.manufacturers are concentrating on that segment of the market. The
:06:40. > :06:44.chance of one cartooning the fortunes of the company car round a
:06:45. > :06:49.slimmer than they used to be. wants to make savings from the tie-
:06:49. > :06:55.up with General Motors to share production and development
:06:55. > :07:00.facilities but Opel is also a troubled company. Opel has lost
:07:00. > :07:08.more money over the last decade more than any other company in
:07:08. > :07:14.Europe. Their other two weakest car defensive alliance between two
:07:14. > :07:18.weaklings, like to dance leaning against each other for support.
:07:18. > :07:24.show's managers promised to inject new life into the firm, restoring
:07:24. > :07:33.it to profit by 2015. It is difficult to see how they can,
:07:33. > :07:37.given Europe's sinking car market. The South Korea released its latest
:07:37. > :07:42.labour figures and its unemployment rate hit a 7-month high in January.
:07:42. > :07:48.Mariko Oi is at our Asia Business hub in Singapore. Of why are the
:07:48. > :07:53.number of people out of work going on? It is because of tens of
:07:53. > :07:57.thousands of college graduates joining the labour market. Even
:07:57. > :08:00.though when you say the jobless rate has hit the highest level in
:08:00. > :08:06.seven months, it is still relatively low compared the United
:08:06. > :08:12.States or Europe at 3.2%. When you look at the figures for younger
:08:12. > :08:18.people, between 25 and 29, the jobless rate is much higher. It is
:08:19. > :08:24.double the national average at 6.4%. As you were talking to Michel
:08:24. > :08:29.earlier, job-creation was something President Obama took about a lot in
:08:29. > :08:33.his speech, and it is something many Asian countries share as well.
:08:33. > :08:43.It is one of any economic issues the new president will have to face
:08:43. > :08:44.
:08:44. > :08:47.when she takes office next month. In other news US cable provider
:08:47. > :08:50.Comcast is to buy the part of TV and film company NBC Universal it
:08:50. > :08:52.doesn't already own for $16.7 billion. Comcast will buy the 49%
:08:52. > :08:56.stake in the joint venture from US industrial conglomerate General
:08:56. > :08:58.Electric. As part of the deal, it will also buy the well-known 30
:08:58. > :09:08.Rockefeller Plaza building in New York and another property for $1.4
:09:08. > :09:17.
:09:17. > :09:21.billion. Quite a week this year, the Chinese New year celebrations
:09:21. > :09:31.continue for Shanghai and Hong Kong. Some of the share markets closed
:09:31. > :09:37.
:09:37. > :09:43.for Asia. Japan seeing a 1.2% fall, probably on profit taking. Japan