11/03/2014

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:00:08. > :00:16.Now for the latest financial news with Sally.

:00:17. > :00:22.What did the Bank of England know about manipulation of the foreign

:00:23. > :00:27.exchange markets? The governor faces a grilling by UK politicians.

:00:28. > :00:30.Three years on from the Fukushima nuclear disaster we assess the fall

:00:31. > :00:46.out on the global energy industry. Welcome to World Business Report.

:00:47. > :00:49.I'm Sally Bundock. Also in the programme, Whitemoor in Asia are

:00:50. > :00:52.turning to the pawn shop as a means of meeting their financial needs.

:00:53. > :00:55.The governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney faces some tough

:00:56. > :00:57.questioning from UK lawmakers today. Members of Parliament on the

:00:58. > :01:00.influential Treasury Select committee are expected to ask him

:01:01. > :01:02.exactly what Bank officials knew about allegations that key prices on

:01:03. > :01:10.the London foreign exchange markets were being manipulated as long as

:01:11. > :01:13.eight years ago. The Bank of England has already suspended one employee

:01:14. > :01:15.and more than 20 traders from major banks including Deutsche, Citigroup

:01:16. > :01:25.and Barclays have been suspended or asked to leave. Nigel Cassidy

:01:26. > :01:34.reports. This is the second scandal to taint

:01:35. > :01:38.household name banks in London and also potentially, the Central Bank

:01:39. > :01:42.in charge of them. The Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, faces

:01:43. > :01:49.tough questions over his institution monitored conduct around the London

:01:50. > :01:52.fix of currency rates. The concern is that the deal will place large

:01:53. > :01:58.trades close to the price setting deadlines. Adding the price up and

:01:59. > :02:04.allowing others in the know to sell later at a profit at the expense of

:02:05. > :02:07.investors everywhere. What is clear is that beyond today's testimony,

:02:08. > :02:13.the frantic examination of what officials said and did and to who is

:02:14. > :02:17.still at an early stage. Minutes of meetings here at the Bank of England

:02:18. > :02:22.show that it was aware of allegations of possible price-fixing

:02:23. > :02:30.on the foreign exchanges as early as July 2006. Officials at held

:02:31. > :02:33.meetings with traders. They later investigation and an examination of

:02:34. > :02:38.thousands of documents show there has been no collusion. The Governor

:02:39. > :02:45.is under extreme pressure. To say why after eight years there has been

:02:46. > :02:51.no decisive enquiry. As the city goes to work as usual, what could

:02:52. > :02:54.come out of all this? It will at least embarrass the bank into

:02:55. > :03:01.thinking about, was that a culture of condoning or turning a blind eye

:03:02. > :03:08.to this kind of manipulation of a major benchmark exchange rate? It

:03:09. > :03:11.may be just that traders believe there was anecdotal evidence, there

:03:12. > :03:15.was some evidence that the rate was being manipulated but it was not for

:03:16. > :03:19.serious enough in order to warrant an investigation. That is not good

:03:20. > :03:26.enough for one of the world's major central banks. With 40% of the

:03:27. > :03:30.currency trades going through the city, London's reputation is

:03:31. > :03:34.everything. The Bank of England governor is set to pull out all the

:03:35. > :03:42.stops to resolve some of the 100 questions of out his rank's actions

:03:43. > :03:47.or in action. As the day progresses we will update on how he gets on.

:03:48. > :03:49.Three years ago today, a devastating earthquake struck Japan and

:03:50. > :03:55.triggered a tsunami that killed almost 16,000 people. It sparked the

:03:56. > :03:58.Fukushima nuclear crisis and as a result, Japan ceased all its nuclear

:03:59. > :04:06.energy output and other countries around the world followed suit. In

:04:07. > :04:08.Europe Germany will phase out nuclear energy production by 2022,

:04:09. > :04:11.while French President Francois Hollande says France will cut its

:04:12. > :04:14.nuclear output sharply - the current target being, by a third in 20 years

:04:15. > :04:16.By contrast, the UK remains committed to new nuclear power

:04:17. > :04:27.plants. So, three years on from the

:04:28. > :04:32.Fukishima disaster, what is the future of nuclear? Could something

:04:33. > :04:38.take its place, or is it one way Europe can avoid being too dependent

:04:39. > :04:46.on Russian gas. For more on this, I am now joined by Nuclear expert

:04:47. > :04:51.Malcolm Grimston. If we could talk about Japan to start with. They were

:04:52. > :04:55.an economy that relied heavily on nuclear. This event took place which

:04:56. > :05:02.obviously changed everything. In more ways than one. How has it

:05:03. > :05:08.managed to keep on since? Before the earthquake, Japan was the largest

:05:09. > :05:12.importer of national gas. It is an island with no electricity

:05:13. > :05:16.connections to anywhere else. They have kept lights on but the price

:05:17. > :05:21.they have paid economically, the fuel cost has doubled in the course

:05:22. > :05:27.of the last three years in Japan. And environmentally, they did have a

:05:28. > :05:32.target to cut emissions by 25%. Last December, the government said they

:05:33. > :05:36.now had a target to increase them. They have had to ride coach and

:05:37. > :05:43.horses through their economy, they had a trade deficit in the first

:05:44. > :05:47.time in 30 years because of the imports of fossil fuels in

:05:48. > :05:50.particular. They have entirely abandon their greenhouse gas

:05:51. > :05:57.targets. It has been a remarkable achievement, nuclear was generating

:05:58. > :06:02.a large amount of their electricity. Directly after the accident, the

:06:03. > :06:06.lights have stayed on. What is viewed now in Japan? They have not

:06:07. > :06:13.closed the door on nuclear by any means. They are hoping to open some

:06:14. > :06:18.plants soon? They published a basic energy plan last month. That state

:06:19. > :06:23.very clearly that nuclear energy will remain an important source of

:06:24. > :06:26.electricity. All of their plans are off-line at the moment for safety

:06:27. > :06:34.assessments. Most people are saying it is practically impossible that

:06:35. > :06:38.all of those will come back online. Three quarters of those will resume

:06:39. > :06:43.generation. There are 17 or 18 in front of the regulator at the

:06:44. > :06:50.moment. If they get permission, they could be back online in one year.

:06:51. > :06:56.It's all a large shift in Europe. Germany has always been a bit

:06:57. > :07:01.uncomfortable with nuclear? Your Mac those countries in the middle of

:07:02. > :07:07.Europe such as Germany have tended to be a bit more pot off by this.

:07:08. > :07:15.The United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Poland, the luckier, Bulgaria, those

:07:16. > :07:20.are countries that have not changed their nuclear policy at all. China

:07:21. > :07:25.has continued to build more stations. There are more stations

:07:26. > :07:33.under construction now then in the last 15 years. Thank you very much.

:07:34. > :07:35.We did not have time to talk about the situation in Crimea. Let's

:07:36. > :07:41.squeeze in some other business stories.

:07:42. > :07:46.Shares in some of the world's biggest mining companies continue to

:07:47. > :07:49.slide due to a slump in the price of iron ore, amid fears of a slowdown

:07:50. > :07:52.in China's economy. Iron ore delivered into China fell 8.3% on

:07:53. > :07:55.Monday after Beijing reported weak export data. China is one of the

:07:56. > :07:58.biggest consumers of the commodity and there are concerns a slowdown in

:07:59. > :08:07.its economy may impact miners' profits. The E-commerce giant eBay

:08:08. > :08:10.has cut its chief executive's pay by more than half. The company said

:08:11. > :08:12.that while John Donahoe had performed well, the company's

:08:13. > :08:14.financial performance had not fully met expectations. Mr Donahoe was

:08:15. > :08:17.paid more than $13-million dollars including bonus in 2013, down from

:08:18. > :08:21.more than $29 million a year earlier.

:08:22. > :08:24.Mt.Gox, the Tokyo-based Bitcoin exchange that collapsed last month

:08:25. > :08:27.after the loss of about 474 million dollars worth of Bitcoins, has filed

:08:28. > :08:37.for bankruptcy protection in the United States. The petition - to be

:08:38. > :08:40.heard in a court in Chicago - is expected to rule on whether a US

:08:41. > :08:43.class action lawsuit can go ahead against the company. If the petition

:08:44. > :08:45.is successful, lawsuits in the US against the Japanese company would

:08:46. > :08:58.be temporarily halted. Let's talk you through financial

:08:59. > :09:05.markets. We have talked about the fact that among the losers in Asia

:09:06. > :09:14.today, we saw a drop off yesterday. The market in general as you can see

:09:15. > :09:19.are bouncing back. Hong Kong is up marginally. The news about China is

:09:20. > :09:24.still spooking investors to a degree around the world. Investors are

:09:25. > :09:34.concerned about the outlook. I am trying to bring up the details on

:09:35. > :09:40.the United States for you. You can see the dollar is buying just over

:09:41. > :09:47.103 yen. The yen is relatively weak. Keep an eye on Mark Carney later.

:09:48. > :09:53.That will be an interesting session taking place here in London later

:09:54. > :10:06.on. That is all from me now. Stay with us.

:10:07. > :10:11.Researchers say children in the UK are at risk of strokes and heart

:10:12. > :10:18.disease in later life because they're eating too much salt. That's

:10:19. > :10:21.despite the government's drive to cut sodium levels in food. In the

:10:22. > :10:24.biggest study of its kind, they found much of the salt comes from

:10:25. > :10:27.breads and cereals. And unless that changes, Britain could be storing up

:10:28. > :10:28.health problems for the future.