11/03/2014 World Business Report


11/03/2014

Similar Content

Browse content similar to 11/03/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

Now for the latest financial news with Sally.

:00:08.:00:16.

What did the Bank of England know about manipulation of the foreign

:00:17.:00:22.

exchange markets? The governor faces a grilling by UK politicians.

:00:23.:00:27.

Three years on from the Fukushima nuclear disaster we assess the fall

:00:28.:00:30.

out on the global energy industry. Welcome to World Business Report.

:00:31.:00:46.

I'm Sally Bundock. Also in the programme, Whitemoor in Asia are

:00:47.:00:49.

turning to the pawn shop as a means of meeting their financial needs.

:00:50.:00:52.

The governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney faces some tough

:00:53.:00:55.

questioning from UK lawmakers today. Members of Parliament on the

:00:56.:00:57.

influential Treasury Select committee are expected to ask him

:00:58.:01:00.

exactly what Bank officials knew about allegations that key prices on

:01:01.:01:02.

the London foreign exchange markets were being manipulated as long as

:01:03.:01:10.

eight years ago. The Bank of England has already suspended one employee

:01:11.:01:13.

and more than 20 traders from major banks including Deutsche, Citigroup

:01:14.:01:15.

and Barclays have been suspended or asked to leave. Nigel Cassidy

:01:16.:01:25.

reports. This is the second scandal to taint

:01:26.:01:34.

household name banks in London and also potentially, the Central Bank

:01:35.:01:38.

in charge of them. The Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, faces

:01:39.:01:42.

tough questions over his institution monitored conduct around the London

:01:43.:01:49.

fix of currency rates. The concern is that the deal will place large

:01:50.:01:52.

trades close to the price setting deadlines. Adding the price up and

:01:53.:01:58.

allowing others in the know to sell later at a profit at the expense of

:01:59.:02:04.

investors everywhere. What is clear is that beyond today's testimony,

:02:05.:02:07.

the frantic examination of what officials said and did and to who is

:02:08.:02:13.

still at an early stage. Minutes of meetings here at the Bank of England

:02:14.:02:17.

show that it was aware of allegations of possible price-fixing

:02:18.:02:22.

on the foreign exchanges as early as July 2006. Officials at held

:02:23.:02:30.

meetings with traders. They later investigation and an examination of

:02:31.:02:33.

thousands of documents show there has been no collusion. The Governor

:02:34.:02:38.

is under extreme pressure. To say why after eight years there has been

:02:39.:02:45.

no decisive enquiry. As the city goes to work as usual, what could

:02:46.:02:51.

come out of all this? It will at least embarrass the bank into

:02:52.:02:54.

thinking about, was that a culture of condoning or turning a blind eye

:02:55.:03:01.

to this kind of manipulation of a major benchmark exchange rate? It

:03:02.:03:08.

may be just that traders believe there was anecdotal evidence, there

:03:09.:03:11.

was some evidence that the rate was being manipulated but it was not for

:03:12.:03:15.

serious enough in order to warrant an investigation. That is not good

:03:16.:03:19.

enough for one of the world's major central banks. With 40% of the

:03:20.:03:26.

currency trades going through the city, London's reputation is

:03:27.:03:30.

everything. The Bank of England governor is set to pull out all the

:03:31.:03:34.

stops to resolve some of the 100 questions of out his rank's actions

:03:35.:03:42.

or in action. As the day progresses we will update on how he gets on.

:03:43.:03:47.

Three years ago today, a devastating earthquake struck Japan and

:03:48.:03:49.

triggered a tsunami that killed almost 16,000 people. It sparked the

:03:50.:03:55.

Fukushima nuclear crisis and as a result, Japan ceased all its nuclear

:03:56.:03:58.

energy output and other countries around the world followed suit. In

:03:59.:04:06.

Europe Germany will phase out nuclear energy production by 2022,

:04:07.:04:08.

while French President Francois Hollande says France will cut its

:04:09.:04:11.

nuclear output sharply - the current target being, by a third in 20 years

:04:12.:04:14.

By contrast, the UK remains committed to new nuclear power

:04:15.:04:16.

plants. So, three years on from the

:04:17.:04:27.

Fukishima disaster, what is the future of nuclear? Could something

:04:28.:04:32.

take its place, or is it one way Europe can avoid being too dependent

:04:33.:04:38.

on Russian gas. For more on this, I am now joined by Nuclear expert

:04:39.:04:46.

Malcolm Grimston. If we could talk about Japan to start with. They were

:04:47.:04:51.

an economy that relied heavily on nuclear. This event took place which

:04:52.:04:55.

obviously changed everything. In more ways than one. How has it

:04:56.:05:02.

managed to keep on since? Before the earthquake, Japan was the largest

:05:03.:05:08.

importer of national gas. It is an island with no electricity

:05:09.:05:12.

connections to anywhere else. They have kept lights on but the price

:05:13.:05:16.

they have paid economically, the fuel cost has doubled in the course

:05:17.:05:21.

of the last three years in Japan. And environmentally, they did have a

:05:22.:05:27.

target to cut emissions by 25%. Last December, the government said they

:05:28.:05:32.

now had a target to increase them. They have had to ride coach and

:05:33.:05:36.

horses through their economy, they had a trade deficit in the first

:05:37.:05:43.

time in 30 years because of the imports of fossil fuels in

:05:44.:05:47.

particular. They have entirely abandon their greenhouse gas

:05:48.:05:50.

targets. It has been a remarkable achievement, nuclear was generating

:05:51.:05:57.

a large amount of their electricity. Directly after the accident, the

:05:58.:06:02.

lights have stayed on. What is viewed now in Japan? They have not

:06:03.:06:06.

closed the door on nuclear by any means. They are hoping to open some

:06:07.:06:13.

plants soon? They published a basic energy plan last month. That state

:06:14.:06:18.

very clearly that nuclear energy will remain an important source of

:06:19.:06:23.

electricity. All of their plans are off-line at the moment for safety

:06:24.:06:26.

assessments. Most people are saying it is practically impossible that

:06:27.:06:34.

all of those will come back online. Three quarters of those will resume

:06:35.:06:38.

generation. There are 17 or 18 in front of the regulator at the

:06:39.:06:43.

moment. If they get permission, they could be back online in one year.

:06:44.:06:50.

It's all a large shift in Europe. Germany has always been a bit

:06:51.:06:56.

uncomfortable with nuclear? Your Mac those countries in the middle of

:06:57.:07:01.

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

:07:02.:07:07.

The United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Poland, the luckier, Bulgaria, those

:07:08.:07:15.

are countries that have not changed their nuclear policy at all. China

:07:16.:07:20.

has continued to build more stations. There are more stations

:07:21.:07:25.

under construction now then in the last 15 years. Thank you very much.

:07:26.:07:33.

We did not have time to talk about the situation in Crimea. Let's

:07:34.:07:35.

squeeze in some other business stories.

:07:36.:07:41.

Shares in some of the world's biggest mining companies continue to

:07:42.:07:46.

slide due to a slump in the price of iron ore, amid fears of a slowdown

:07:47.:07:49.

in China's economy. Iron ore delivered into China fell 8.3% on

:07:50.:07:52.

Monday after Beijing reported weak export data. China is one of the

:07:53.:07:55.

biggest consumers of the commodity and there are concerns a slowdown in

:07:56.:07:58.

its economy may impact miners' profits. The E-commerce giant eBay

:07:59.:08:07.

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

:08:08.:08:10.

that while John Donahoe had performed well, the company's

:08:11.:08:12.

financial performance had not fully met expectations. Mr Donahoe was

:08:13.:08:14.

paid more than $13-million dollars including bonus in 2013, down from

:08:15.:08:17.

more than $29 million a year earlier.

:08:18.:08:21.

Mt.Gox, the Tokyo-based Bitcoin exchange that collapsed last month

:08:22.:08:24.

after the loss of about 474 million dollars worth of Bitcoins, has filed

:08:25.:08:27.

for bankruptcy protection in the United States. The petition - to be

:08:28.:08:37.

heard in a court in Chicago - is expected to rule on whether a US

:08:38.:08:40.

class action lawsuit can go ahead against the company. If the petition

:08:41.:08:43.

is successful, lawsuits in the US against the Japanese company would

:08:44.:08:45.

be temporarily halted. Let's talk you through financial

:08:46.:08:58.

markets. We have talked about the fact that among the losers in Asia

:08:59.:09:05.

today, we saw a drop off yesterday. The market in general as you can see

:09:06.:09:14.

are bouncing back. Hong Kong is up marginally. The news about China is

:09:15.:09:19.

still spooking investors to a degree around the world. Investors are

:09:20.:09:24.

concerned about the outlook. I am trying to bring up the details on

:09:25.:09:34.

the United States for you. You can see the dollar is buying just over

:09:35.:09:40.

103 yen. The yen is relatively weak. Keep an eye on Mark Carney later.

:09:41.:09:47.

That will be an interesting session taking place here in London later

:09:48.:09:53.

on. That is all from me now. Stay with us.

:09:54.:10:06.

Researchers say children in the UK are at risk of strokes and heart

:10:07.:10:11.

disease in later life because they're eating too much salt. That's

:10:12.:10:18.

despite the government's drive to cut sodium levels in food. In the

:10:19.:10:21.

biggest study of its kind, they found much of the salt comes from

:10:22.:10:24.

breads and cereals. And unless that changes, Britain could be storing up

:10:25.:10:27.

health problems for the future.

:10:28.:10:28.

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS