:00:02. > :00:12.BBC World News. Now, the latest financial news with World Business
:00:12. > :00:19.
:00:19. > :00:23.Report. Pressure mounts on Google over its tax affairs after a
:00:23. > :00:28.scathing report by the UK Parliament. The search giant says
:00:28. > :00:32.it's doing nothing illegal. Nerves return to the Nikkei - Japan's
:00:32. > :00:42.stock market plunges as much as 6% after a sell-off on Wall Street.
:00:42. > :00:48.All eyes on the US Federal Reserve meeting next week. Welcome to World
:00:48. > :00:52.Business Report. Also in the programme: we go live to Athens and
:00:53. > :00:56.speak to an economist about the fresh turmoil there. Google is
:00:56. > :01:01.under fire again this morning after a report by members of the UK
:01:01. > :01:02.parliament has delivered a scathing attack on its tax affairs. The
:01:02. > :01:07.influential Public Accounts Committee says Britain's tax
:01:07. > :01:10.authorities should "fully investigate" the internet giant. It
:01:10. > :01:13.says Google runs a "highly contrived" scheme to avoid paying
:01:13. > :01:23.tax on its multi-billion dollar UK profits by running its UK business
:01:23. > :01:28.
:01:28. > :01:32.from Ireland. The practice of making payments from advertising
:01:32. > :01:36.through Northern Ireland has no other purpose but to avoid
:01:36. > :01:42.corporation tax, so the committee argues. They believe the company
:01:42. > :01:47.needs to pay tax where it earns its products. No they have a very
:01:47. > :01:52.complex web of companies across many countries where the sole
:01:52. > :01:58.purpose appears to be to avoid paying their fair share of tax on
:01:58. > :02:07.the products they make from the business they do in the UK.
:02:07. > :02:12.committee says that Google has sales of �11.5 billion between 2000
:02:12. > :02:19.seats and 2011. It claims the property, would have been enormous
:02:19. > :02:23.and has no real figure but it says that they paid just �10 million in
:02:23. > :02:27.corporation tax during that period. A lot like to start by reminding
:02:27. > :02:32.you that it's a very serious offence to mislead the
:02:32. > :02:37.parliamentary committee. Last month the MPs said whistle-blowers told
:02:37. > :02:45.them that Google staff were selling in the UK rather than from Ireland.
:02:45. > :02:50.team and execute the transaction and no money changes hands. Google
:02:50. > :02:57.said it complies with all of the tax rules and it's the politicians
:02:57. > :03:00.to make the rules. The MPs have criticised customs are not doing
:03:00. > :03:04.anything and they want the Government to take international
:03:04. > :03:14.action. Shares in Japan have sunk by almost 6% today and the Japanese
:03:14. > :03:24.yen has jumped to a two-month high against the dollar. To explain why,
:03:24. > :03:30.we go to our Asia business hub and speak to Rico Hizon. This is a
:03:30. > :03:35.story of daily volatility in Japan but today it's quite cute? There
:03:35. > :03:39.seems to be no end in sight. It's a very steep last particularly the
:03:39. > :03:46.Japanese stock market but this is not the first time it has dropped
:03:46. > :03:49.this much. The Nikkei plunged I % for a third time in the past three
:03:50. > :03:56.weeks and Beth yen is very strong and that is the culprit and it has
:03:56. > :04:03.been strengthened from a year low against the US dollar two weeks ago.
:04:03. > :04:07.The yen is appreciating and it is eroding export earnings. It hurts
:04:08. > :04:14.competitiveness by making Japanese products more expensive such as
:04:14. > :04:22.Toyota are down 5% today and some brokerage firms have lost 4% and
:04:22. > :04:27.consumer lending has slumped 8%. Investors are worried about the
:04:27. > :04:32.strength of the yen and they stress there is no good use to boost the
:04:32. > :04:38.markets here at the moment. Other Asian markets continued to slide
:04:38. > :04:42.down to a six-month low fuelled by this worry about the Japanese yen
:04:43. > :04:48.and also about monetary policy in the US and in Japan and all eyes
:04:48. > :04:55.will be on the US Federal Reserve with more stimulus measures. Hong
:04:55. > :05:03.Kong has also retracted and others such as Australia and Singapore
:05:03. > :05:06.also lower today. It's a very volatile market in Japan today.
:05:06. > :05:09.Greece's government is battling with the fallout from its decision
:05:09. > :05:11.to shut down state TV and radio as part of its spending cuts. The
:05:11. > :05:13.decision has triggered fierce opposition from within the
:05:13. > :05:19.coalition government and the country's two largest labour unions
:05:19. > :05:22.have called a 24-hour general strike for today. The latest crisis
:05:22. > :05:25.adds to a terrible week for Greece, after the planned privatisation of
:05:25. > :05:35.the state gas company failed to attract any bidders, and the MSCI
:05:35. > :05:37.
:05:37. > :05:40.stock market index reclassified the country as an emerging market. We
:05:40. > :05:49.will go live to Athens. Professor Yanis Varoufakis is Professor of
:05:49. > :05:53.Economics at the University of Athens. You have always been, after
:05:54. > :06:00.speaking to you many times, quite negative in terms of how things are
:06:00. > :06:03.going in Greece. Particularly, this week is another incredibly
:06:03. > :06:10.difficult week with that decision to close the broadcaster and its
:06:10. > :06:17.kick off more action? We have the inane handling of the inevitable
:06:17. > :06:21.crisis. That's due to the fact that for three years now, as the
:06:21. > :06:27.International Monetary Fund has acknowledged, we have been in
:06:27. > :06:30.denial. They are very basic predicaments. Greece has a public
:06:31. > :06:37.sector which is bankrupt for over four years. The banking system is
:06:37. > :06:46.bankrupt. This has created a deflationary cycle. During this
:06:46. > :06:51.cycle, the Government tries to ward off and privatise assets. This is
:06:51. > :06:56.not a great wonder about this whole mess creating ripples felt
:06:56. > :07:01.throughout the Greek economy constantly. This move to close the
:07:01. > :07:05.public broadcaster has led to a political crisis, would you say? I
:07:05. > :07:13.understand within the Coalition, key members are saying they're not
:07:13. > :07:16.with the Government in its decision. It was an intentional crisis,
:07:16. > :07:26.unintentional, and the Prime Minister knew it. Imagine in
:07:26. > :07:31.Cameron announced the closure of the BBC, all radio and TV,
:07:31. > :07:35.everything. Effective immediately. That would cause a crisis would it
:07:35. > :07:44.not and it would be a very foolish Prime Minister that would cause
:07:44. > :07:51.this crisis. This was partly to take off the agenda but major
:07:51. > :07:57.failures I have mentioned and the privatisation of the gas company.
:07:57. > :08:02.Also, it's about the Coalition partners to put them in a tight
:08:02. > :08:08.position to force them to overthrow him or deny him any vote of
:08:08. > :08:14.confidence in parliament and to make him look strong as a leader
:08:14. > :08:19.just before an early election or they may bend towards his will and
:08:19. > :08:23.make them except his lead in this government. Clearly, was not much
:08:23. > :08:30.faith in how things are going but what do you think will happen next
:08:30. > :08:35.as far as Greece is concerned? Economic, I am afraid, there is no
:08:35. > :08:42.room for any doubt as to the culmination of this deflationary
:08:42. > :08:50.cycle. It's very simple. Last year, investment in this country, a
:08:50. > :08:55.country that has seen GDP collapse by over 30%, investment fell 20%
:08:55. > :09:03.and it was the Government forecast it will fall another 13% and its
:09:03. > :09:08.noun negative investment territory. Any economy in this cycle with
:09:08. > :09:14.negative growth or investment can't hope for anything other than the
:09:14. > :09:23.same old story. We will leave it there but thank you for getting up
:09:23. > :09:28.to join us from Athens. There was a shareholder vote in the biggest
:09:28. > :09:33.advertising advertising agency yesterday backing a $27 million pay
:09:33. > :09:41.package for the chief executive Martin Sorrell which drew fire from
:09:41. > :09:46.critics. 81% of the shareholders voted for the packages but 19% were
:09:46. > :09:51.against it. The Royal Bank of Scotland is expected to announce
:09:51. > :09:58.2000 job losses in the wake of the planned to stand down after five