:00:02. > :00:12.latest headlines from BBC News. Now for the latest financial news with
:00:12. > :00:20.
:00:20. > :00:25.Sally Bundock and World Business Japan's growth surges as the
:00:25. > :00:28.government pumps billions into the economy but will it last? Dell on
:00:28. > :00:38.the defensive - as its founder battles to keep control of the
:00:38. > :00:45.
:00:45. > :00:47.struggling PC maker. Welcome to World Business Report. Also in the
:00:47. > :00:54.programme Singapore Airlines rethinks its strategy as it faces
:00:54. > :00:57.new competition in Asia and the Gulf. We start in Japan where there
:00:57. > :01:03.is strong evidence that massive and controversial stimulus measures are
:01:03. > :01:08.paying off. Japan's GDP grew 0.9% in the first 3 months of the year
:01:08. > :01:12.compared with the previous quarter. That's stronger than expected and
:01:12. > :01:15.when you look back on the past year its economy grew by 3.5% - again
:01:15. > :01:25.much stronger than expected and much stronger than the 2.5% growth
:01:25. > :01:25.
:01:26. > :01:28.seen by the US in the same quarter. The figures cover the first
:01:28. > :01:31.complete quarter since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned to
:01:31. > :01:33.power in December - pledging to drag Japan out of two decades of
:01:33. > :01:41.economic stagnation with huge government spending financed by
:01:41. > :01:50.printing unlimited amounts of yen. Let's talk to our correspondent in
:01:51. > :01:58.Tokyo Rupert Wingfield-Hayes. Nice to see you. It would seem that
:01:58. > :02:00.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's medicine is working for now? I am
:02:00. > :02:06.sure that that is what Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be
:02:06. > :02:10.claiming. He will be well pleased at the figures. They come at the
:02:11. > :02:15.end of the first quarter since he came back to power. They come
:02:15. > :02:23.before very important elections in the summer here. Very important
:02:23. > :02:29.that Japan's economy is undergoing robust growth. But there is much
:02:29. > :02:33.going on here about what the figures actually mean. His is a
:02:33. > :02:40.real turn round? Warra is it a lot of froth produced by pumping a lot
:02:40. > :02:44.of money into the economy. It is 70% up since the beginning of the
:02:44. > :02:49.year, pushing down the value of the yen, milling exporters are making
:02:49. > :02:53.bigger profit but that is not in itself a fundamental change in
:02:53. > :02:59.direction of the Japanese economy. There is a degree of scepticism
:02:59. > :03:05.that anything has really changed fundamentally here. Other figures
:03:05. > :03:10.still skewed because of the Fukushima disaster in 2011? Does
:03:10. > :03:20.that still have an effect? There has been a lot of infrastructure
:03:20. > :03:21.
:03:21. > :03:26.spending helping the figures? cannot name the exact number but
:03:26. > :03:32.they are you. The amount of money the government put in very building
:03:32. > :03:36.after the earthquake and a tsunami. I am not sure what that is in
:03:36. > :03:42.dollars but it is a huge amount of dock of money. At the beginning of
:03:42. > :03:44.the year, another huge amount of money to be added to that was
:03:44. > :03:50.announced by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. So it is still having an
:03:50. > :03:54.impact. There is inevitably going to have a knock-on effect in
:03:54. > :04:01.boosting the economy. That is an important part of what we have seen
:04:01. > :04:06.in the past few months, so is the stock market rally. But is this
:04:06. > :04:12.sustainable? The jury is still out. Thank you very much. Something we
:04:12. > :04:17.will discuss when we get more information about how Japan is
:04:17. > :04:19.doing. Looking at some corporate stories. Dell reports its first
:04:20. > :04:22.quarter earnings later five days early. It's a highly unusual move.
:04:23. > :04:26.The PC maker hasn't given a reason, but there's speculation its poised
:04:26. > :04:32.to reveal profits news that is much worse than expected and wants to
:04:32. > :04:42.inform Wall Street as soon as shrinking share of a declining PC
:04:42. > :04:46.
:04:46. > :04:55.market that's led to a battle for control of the company. For two
:04:55. > :05:01.decades, this was the computer to have. But those days are gone. PC
:05:01. > :05:07.sales are declining as customers favour tablets and mobile devices.
:05:07. > :05:13.Here is a problem - Dell is struggling to remain relevant. In
:05:13. > :05:20.2000 it hit an all-time high of $54 in the stock market. The stock
:05:20. > :05:27.price now hovers around $13.50. What to do with the company's
:05:27. > :05:33.future? Two men and two competing visions for Dell. On the left, the
:05:33. > :05:38.founder and CEO. On the right, the largest shareholder. Michael Dell
:05:38. > :05:43.wants to take the company back into private hands and change it from a
:05:43. > :05:47.PC maker to a full service IT Computer or possibly something more.
:05:47. > :05:51.But corporate investors believe the company is worth more and is
:05:51. > :05:56.putting another off on the table. One that would keep the first and
:05:57. > :06:02.largest computer maker up publicly treated company. If that the canals,
:06:02. > :06:10.it is unlikely Michael Dell will continue as CEO. Wrestling the
:06:10. > :06:16.company away from the man who founded it will not be easy. When
:06:17. > :06:21.we get the results from Dell, which will make headlines later today, we
:06:21. > :06:24.will update you on the BBC. Asia's second biggest airline reports
:06:24. > :06:26.results today. Singapore Airlines is finding life tough being caught
:06:26. > :06:32.between the well-funded Gulf airlines and the cheaper budget
:06:32. > :06:41.carriers. So how are they faring? Let's speak to Rico Hizon in
:06:41. > :06:47.Singapore. Nice to see. Singapore Airlines having a tough time - what
:06:47. > :06:55.is again to do about it? A lot of trouble for Singapore Airline over
:06:55. > :06:59.the past year. It offered the deal at the dropping by 70%. -- its
:06:59. > :07:06.profitability. Over the past year, there have been attending a big
:07:06. > :07:15.strategy overall to boost sales. Stake in Virgin Atlantic, they
:07:15. > :07:19.started a new Budget airline, potentially increasing their stake
:07:19. > :07:25.in Tiger Airways. They also have the airline cutting costs.
:07:25. > :07:33.Terminating contracts of all 70 sick of its foreign pilots.
:07:33. > :07:43.Hopefully these changes will pay off. The forecast for wait 22% hike
:07:43. > :07:48.in net profit to $330 million. It's a long haul routes may be helping
:07:48. > :07:52.traffic. If you take a look at the premium class travel, which makes
:07:52. > :07:59.up 40% of revenue, this has been hit by cutbacks in corporate
:07:59. > :08:09.budgets. Offers and initiatives from major golf carriers such as an
:08:09. > :08:13.roads and Qatar Airways, -- Emirates. Which a strong financial
:08:13. > :08:18.backing have been taking away market shares. The numbers will
:08:18. > :08:24.reveal if their strategy has worked and what impact the competition has
:08:24. > :08:29.had on its competition and revenue. We told you yesterday to keep an
:08:29. > :08:34.eye out for Google. It is hosting 6,000 engineers, entrepreneurs and
:08:34. > :08:43.journalists at its conference in San Francisco. Is a chance for it
:08:43. > :08:49.to showcase its latest services, among them a revamp of Google map.
:08:49. > :08:56.The conference and Google has been unveiling changes to services.
:08:56. > :09:00.Google Maps is one of the major ones. What users will notice about
:09:00. > :09:04.the new version? The most dramatic change will be the search by is
:09:04. > :09:11.available on the top left. You see much more of the map experience
:09:11. > :09:19.when you look at the screen. We can actually do touch screen in this
:09:19. > :09:22.case. In this case, it is a coffee shop. We have freed the imagery.
:09:22. > :09:28.You're going to know what the neighbourhood is like before you
:09:28. > :09:34.get there. You can quickly back out of it just like that. What is the
:09:34. > :09:40.thinking here? It is more personalised? But you are also
:09:40. > :09:44.getting more advertising? It is more unique view. We are hoping to
:09:44. > :09:51.make your experience tight your searches. If you're searching for
:09:51. > :09:55.coffee places, we want at the relevant to that. This giant
:09:55. > :10:00.advertising business which Google is - this is a key product?
:10:00. > :10:04.Absolutely. We should point out that during the preview period,
:10:04. > :10:09.there will be no charge to advertisers as a part of all this.
:10:09. > :10:16.Going forward, it is an opportunity for them but we want to make it
:10:17. > :10:19.useful for the user. We will have more from Sanz -- San Francisco. In
:10:19. > :10:21.other news: The world's biggest retailer Wal-Mart reports first
:10:21. > :10:25.quarter results later - they're expected to show improving spending
:10:25. > :10:28.by US shoppers who had been holding off purchases after tax rises hit
:10:28. > :10:31.them at the beginning of the year. There's likely to be a lot of
:10:31. > :10:34.attention on Wal-Mart's policies in Bangladesh after it refused to join
:10:34. > :10:38.a factory safety accord signed by most other garment retailers. Oil
:10:38. > :10:40.giant BP says it may have to pay billions of dollars more than it
:10:40. > :10:45.expected in compensation to businesses affected by the
:10:45. > :10:47.Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The oil giant has lodged an appeal in
:10:47. > :10:50.the US against the settlement procedure because it believes that
:10:50. > :10:55.huge amounts are going to companies that don't deserve to be
:10:55. > :11:00.compensated. BP worries it will be irreparably harmed by the costs and
:11:01. > :11:03.has asked the British government to intervene. Britain's government
:11:03. > :11:06.spending watchdog the National Audit Office has criticised plans
:11:06. > :11:11.for a new high speed north-south rail link - which would be the UK's
:11:11. > :11:15.biggest ever infrastructure project. The NAO says the project's funding
:11:15. > :11:25.is more than 3 billion pounds short and that it's not clear how it will
:11:25. > :11:25.
:11:25. > :11:29.bring economic growth. You would think the good news about the
:11:29. > :11:37.Japanese economy will give a boost to the market but no. The Nikkei is
:11:37. > :11:44.down by just over 1%. It closed above 50,000 yesterday for the
:11:44. > :11:48.it is time for some province to be taken. We have some bad news from