:00:00. > :00:07.say it is immoral. Those are the latest headlines.
:00:08. > :00:16.Now the latest financial news with Sally.
:00:17. > :00:20.Italy's Prime Minister fights for his political survival amid soaring
:00:21. > :00:25.youth unemployment and the longest recession since World War II.
:00:26. > :00:26.Plus, taking on the Dreamliner - Airbus shows off its hi-tech A350 at
:00:27. > :00:41.the Singapore Airshow. Welcome to World Business Report,
:00:42. > :00:44.I'm Sally Bundock. Also in the programme: Stellar results from
:00:45. > :00:50.Lenovo as the Chinese PC giant continues to branch out. We'll have
:00:51. > :00:54.the details. We start with Italy, and a standoff
:00:55. > :00:58.between these two men over how to pull the country out of its worst
:00:59. > :01:05.slump since the Second World War. On the left, Prime Minister Enrico
:01:06. > :01:07.Letta. On the right, the leader of his Democratic Party, Matteo Renzi,
:01:08. > :01:15.currently mayor of Florence but with major designs on the Prime
:01:16. > :01:18.Minister's job. Today, Letta's future could be decided at a party
:01:19. > :01:20.summit. On Wednesday, he defied pressure to resign, instead
:01:21. > :01:28.outlining plans to create jobs, improve the country's welfare system
:01:29. > :01:32.and reduce taxes. Italy is the third biggest economy that uses the Euro.
:01:33. > :01:37.Its health is of huge importance to the region. And, at the moment, it
:01:38. > :01:42.is not in good health at all. Years of recession have meant the economy
:01:43. > :01:45.has shrunk by 9% since 2007. And unemployment is at a record high -
:01:46. > :01:54.the jobless rate among the under 25s is now 41.6%. I'm joined by
:01:55. > :02:02.economics professor Giuseppe Fontana. Thanks for being on the
:02:03. > :02:05.programme. It all sounds pretty dire, and use of political
:02:06. > :02:10.instability is a very familiar tale in Italy. What you think is going to
:02:11. > :02:15.happen in the tussle between these two men? Good morning. It is not the
:02:16. > :02:19.first time that we have a political battle in Italy, and I don't think
:02:20. > :02:24.it will be the last time. The economic situation is difficult at
:02:25. > :02:30.the moment, and therefore in a sense it is normal, given the current
:02:31. > :02:34.political situation, that there are rumours and speculation that there
:02:35. > :02:42.may be a change in government. You think Matteo Renzi is the right man
:02:43. > :02:50.to run Italy? Well, I think I will stay back a bit and say the
:02:51. > :02:53.political elite is trying to respond to a difficult economic situation,
:02:54. > :03:00.and don't think we should be surprised that there are rumours of
:03:01. > :03:05.it at all between different people that try to solve the economic
:03:06. > :03:09.situation in Italy. I don't worry too much. The financial market
:03:10. > :03:13.doesn't seem to worry too much for the time being so I would suspect
:03:14. > :03:21.that the political instability you were describing due to the hung
:03:22. > :03:25.parliament and the last austerity measure is all bearing on the
:03:26. > :03:28.current economic situation and political instability. The new
:03:29. > :03:33.measures that Enrico Letta announced, we have mentioned some of
:03:34. > :03:37.them. Do you think that they will help? To what extent will do get
:03:38. > :03:41.Italy back on its financial beat? One of the problems with Italy is
:03:42. > :03:44.that it is part of the European Union so there is not much a single
:03:45. > :03:50.country can do. What we can hope is that in a sense Letta together with
:03:51. > :03:58.other partners in Europe can respond to economic problems that are very
:03:59. > :04:02.urgent in Italy as well as other countries. You mention high
:04:03. > :04:09.unemployment, it is a problem across Europe. The Italian government on
:04:10. > :04:14.its own can do little. The political instability is not helping but in a
:04:15. > :04:19.sense it is a difficult situation and it is normal to expect them
:04:20. > :04:23.political turmoil even the very high level of unemployment, the low level
:04:24. > :04:28.of demand. Therefore, I would say that the best hope is that, for
:04:29. > :04:32.instance, when Italy will take over on July the 1st the presidency of
:04:33. > :04:38.the consulate Europe we will propose a way forward to solve those
:04:39. > :04:43.economic problems. We appreciate your time. Professor of economics
:04:44. > :04:47.based in the UK. As the day progresses in Italy, we will keep
:04:48. > :04:50.you up to date. To Asia now, where Chinese PC giant
:04:51. > :04:53.Lenovo has reported a 29% jump in the third quarter profit, way ahead
:04:54. > :04:57.of expectations. The company's shares have been on a roller-coaster
:04:58. > :05:00.in recent weeks as it has been on a major acquisition spree as it tries
:05:01. > :05:04.to diversify away from shrinking PC market. Most recently, it bought the
:05:05. > :05:11.Motorola mobile phone division from Google, the biggest ever technology
:05:12. > :05:18.deal for a Chinese firm. Rico Hizon is in our Asia business hub in
:05:19. > :05:25.Singapore. Always good to see you. This must be a sigh of relief,
:05:26. > :05:27.today's news for Lenovo's shareholders?
:05:28. > :05:32.Absolutely, record numbers, soaring demand for its laptops and mobile
:05:33. > :05:38.devices in emerging markets. The Novo said it shipped a record 32.6
:05:39. > :05:46.million devices in the third quarter and it is nearly five devices every
:05:47. > :05:50.second. However, the company executives are warning that its
:05:51. > :05:54.future finances will be impacted by its recent purchase of IBM's another
:05:55. > :06:01.end server business and motor roller. It paid more than $5 billion
:06:02. > :06:06.to buy both businesses in January. Investors have basically questioned
:06:07. > :06:08.these acquisitions, even that both businesses are currently
:06:09. > :06:14.loss-making. Lenovo said in its conference call that it would take
:06:15. > :06:17.up to five quarters, more than a year, to turn around the motor
:06:18. > :06:23.roller business, which it bought from Google for about 2.9 billion US
:06:24. > :06:26.dollars. The Chinese firm stressed that acquisitions are part of a
:06:27. > :06:35.longer term strategy to move away from resilience on PC sales --
:06:36. > :06:40.reliance on PC sales. Thanks very much. Many of the team
:06:41. > :06:46.are at the Singapore airshow at the moment, where Airbus has been
:06:47. > :06:48.showing off its rival to Boeing's Dreamliner - the A350 XWB. It's a
:06:49. > :06:52.long-range wide-bodied plane made from advanced materials, due to be
:06:53. > :06:55.delivered by the end of this year. Airbus hopes the hi-tech plane will
:06:56. > :06:58.tap into Asia's aviation boom, where a growing middle class are demanding
:06:59. > :07:05.more comfortable - but still affordable - long haul flights. It
:07:06. > :07:08.always looks good on these videos, doesn't it? Do don't see the
:07:09. > :07:11.toddlers running around and the mayhem that we experience when we go
:07:12. > :07:14.on flights. The BBC's Ashleigh Nghiem spoke to Kiran Rao, executive
:07:15. > :07:17.vice president of strategy and marketing at Airbus. He told her
:07:18. > :07:25.Asia was becoming the most important market for them.
:07:26. > :07:31.It is a very exciting region. The Asia-Pacific is growing at around 7%
:07:32. > :07:33.a year. We have demand, we believe, for around 11,000 aircraft over the
:07:34. > :07:41.next 20 years, which represents about dirty 7% of the world aircraft
:07:42. > :07:47.demand for the next 20 years -- about 37%. It is a huge market, the
:07:48. > :07:50.most important for us going forward. The A350 has created a buzz but how
:07:51. > :07:55.will it go up against the Dreamliner? It is the newest
:07:56. > :08:01.technology airliner in the sky today. With the composite wings, we
:08:02. > :08:05.have an aircraft that delivers excellent comfort and passenger
:08:06. > :08:10.appeal but also delivers the lowest fuel burn and the best economics for
:08:11. > :08:13.the airlines to operate. Explore burn is 25% less than current
:08:14. > :08:19.generation air paint and up against the Dreamliner because it is a newer
:08:20. > :08:22.generation aircraft, it has significant advantages. What lessons
:08:23. > :08:29.have you learned from the problems that has faced this macro we learn
:08:30. > :08:33.from our own mistakes on the A350, which was delayed, as you know.
:08:34. > :08:37.Those mistakes were corrected and we have an aircraft that is on time,
:08:38. > :08:44.which will be delivered this year to the first customer. And, yes, we saw
:08:45. > :08:47.some of the issues that occurred on the Dreamliner and we were able to
:08:48. > :08:52.anticipate some of those things and able to correct them in time for the
:08:53. > :08:58.aircraft to go into service. Many say that the duopoly between parent
:08:59. > :09:05.bus and the link is over. What is your strategy? -- between Airbus and
:09:06. > :09:10.Boeing. All of the aircraft starting with small aeroplanes, 100 seaters
:09:11. > :09:16.and above, but the A320 is the world 's most successful aircraft so
:09:17. > :09:21.anybody who wants to challenge the A320 family has to produce a very
:09:22. > :09:25.strong epic against us. So far what we see is that the A320 will
:09:26. > :09:34.continue for many years and be very successful into the 20 13ths --
:09:35. > :09:40.2030s. Time Warner is being brought in a
:09:41. > :09:44.$45 billion deal according to some reports in the press. They said the
:09:45. > :09:49.takeover will be announced today and would combine the two biggest cable
:09:50. > :09:55.operators in the United States would be subject to regulatory approval. A
:09:56. > :09:58.smaller cable company had been pursuing Time Warner. We will look
:09:59. > :10:03.out for that an announcement later today.
:10:04. > :10:11.Market in Asia, as you can see not a good at all. Australia is in focus,
:10:12. > :10:15.it is flat. It has got a headline number at today, unemployment
:10:16. > :10:21.figures out, a ten year high in January, up to 6% now. Not good news
:10:22. > :10:23.for Australia, the Australian dollar down on that news. I will see you
:10:24. > :10:41.very soon. Many thanks to Sally for that.
:10:42. > :10:42.The number of people signed up for new workplace pensions is