:00:00. > :00:00.Those are the latest headlines from BBC World News.
:00:00. > :00:00.Now for the latest financial news with
:00:00. > :00:21.As if China wasn't enough to worry about, could US be
:00:22. > :00:24.The latest growth numbers may add to fears
:00:25. > :00:33.Plus, hold onto your hats: Japan's central bank takes emergency action
:00:34. > :00:35.to stave off the effects of the global turmoil.
:00:36. > :00:36.It's introduced negative interest rates.
:00:37. > :00:59.In a moment, who'd be a central banker?
:01:00. > :01:02.Policy makers around the world are fast running out of ammunition.
:01:03. > :01:10.We start in the United States amid growing fears
:01:11. > :01:13.the world's number one economy is stalling badly, and could even be
:01:14. > :01:19.The latest growth figures are out in a few hours' time.
:01:20. > :01:21.They're being awaited anxiously by financial markets already badly
:01:22. > :01:35.I want to show you how things have been going downhill for the US.
:01:36. > :01:41.In the three months to June last year, the second quarter of 2015,
:01:42. > :01:44.the US economy was growing at a healthy annual rate of 3.9%.
:01:45. > :01:47.By the third quarter of 2015, the three months to September,
:01:48. > :02:05.Economist on average think that in the three months to the end
:02:06. > :02:11.of December, growth in the US economy slumped to just 0.8%.
:02:12. > :02:13.Some though think it could be closer to zero,
:02:14. > :02:16.as the global market turmoil takes its toll on people's confidence.
:02:17. > :02:31.A few even think the economy actually shrank in the last quarter.
:02:32. > :02:35.So is there a real risk of the US economy going into reverse, in other
:02:36. > :02:40.Our New York reporter Nada Tawfik has been been getting the views
:02:41. > :02:58.This shop has survived in competitive Manhattan for several
:02:59. > :03:07.years. It is the coldest months, and the Christmas shopping season drives
:03:08. > :03:15.sales. The co-owner, Adam, says that wasn't the case this year, leaving
:03:16. > :03:19.him with many unsold parkers. The warmest Christmas in history, it was
:03:20. > :03:30.70 degrees here and Christmas. That hurts our sales. The weaker pound
:03:31. > :03:36.means that fewer people come here, and that tends to be part of our
:03:37. > :03:42.customer base. Shopping districts have been a sea of for sale signs.
:03:43. > :03:49.The key question many are now asking is if this is a sign of trouble
:03:50. > :03:55.ahead. Many may think so when GDP figures for the final months of 2015
:03:56. > :04:03.are released, but not so, says Ellen set nav of Morgan Stanley. Not time
:04:04. > :04:06.to panic yet, saying that the economy completely fell on its face.
:04:07. > :04:11.That is what it will look like, but you have to look at the underlying
:04:12. > :04:14.details. No doubt that will really fan the flames of those recession
:04:15. > :04:21.fears, which have grown over the last several weeks. Adding to this,
:04:22. > :04:28.low gas prices means consumers spending more. So, you are not
:04:29. > :04:34.tempted to spend your money? No. I am in New York, I have to play
:04:35. > :04:39.smart. The money you save? I will put it in my pocket. America is
:04:40. > :04:43.still one of the bright spots in an otherwise gloomy global picture, but
:04:44. > :04:48.if consumers don't carry on spending, all of that could change.
:04:49. > :04:52.To Asia now where in the last hour or so the Bank of Japan has narrowly
:04:53. > :04:54.voted to introduce a negative interest rate policy.
:04:55. > :04:57.Effectively it will cost you 0.1 of a percent to deposit your money
:04:58. > :05:01.It hopes that will encourage commercial banks to lend more and
:05:02. > :05:04.Of course it's a response to the global market turmoil
:05:05. > :05:08.on the slowdown in China - that has rather torpedoed Japan's attempts to
:05:09. > :05:14.Mariko Oi is following the story for us in Singapore.
:05:15. > :05:21.This is Japan's central bank telling all the banks in Japan not to give
:05:22. > :05:26.their money to them, but to put it out and lend it to people and
:05:27. > :05:30.business. That is right, it is aimed at encouraging people and companies
:05:31. > :05:37.to start spending money again, because Japan's economy, while it
:05:38. > :05:43.was recovering gradually because of the economic policies of PM Shinzo
:05:44. > :05:45.Abe, known as Abenomics, recently it has been slowing down again,
:05:46. > :05:52.especially with the Chinese slowdown. The market turmoil has
:05:53. > :05:58.been perfect in the stock market as well. As recently as last week, the
:05:59. > :06:01.governor of the bank of Japan was believed to have ruled out the
:06:02. > :06:06.negative rates option, so it caught markets by surprise, within the
:06:07. > :06:09.Nikkei jumping 3% after the announcement. Japan has been
:06:10. > :06:16.thinking about this option since early 2000, but it has always
:06:17. > :06:19.decided against it. The European Central Bank has negative rates as
:06:20. > :06:27.well. These huge question marks over the
:06:28. > :06:30.health of the global economy are providing a major dilemma for the
:06:31. > :06:33.people in charge of the world's monetary policy, the central banks.
:06:34. > :06:36.Interest rates are already at rock bottom, so what ammunition do they
:06:37. > :06:46.have left? The Bank of Japan is not The Bank of Japan is not
:06:47. > :06:49.the only one being forced Earlier this week the
:06:50. > :06:54.US Federal Reserve said it was It is promising gradual
:06:55. > :06:56.adjustments to policy. But investors are betting interest
:06:57. > :06:59.rate rises are on hold for a while at least The Bank of England's Mark
:07:00. > :07:03.Carney has also been caught on the hop, having signalled that rates
:07:04. > :07:09.would start to rise this year. He described
:07:10. > :07:10.the current global economic climate as unforgiving, and ruled out
:07:11. > :07:13.an immediate rate rise in the UK. The head of the
:07:14. > :07:16.European Central Bank, Mario Draghi He says the bank will review
:07:17. > :07:19.and possibly reconsider monetary policy at its next meeting, that's
:07:20. > :07:23.been taken as a hint there could be To underline the hard time central
:07:24. > :07:34.bankers are having at the moment, at a speech in Germany this week
:07:35. > :08:10.Draghi hit out at critics who say The ECB is fulfilling its mandate.
:08:11. > :08:15.These figures do not stand up to scrutiny. The critics of our
:08:16. > :08:17.decisions have been proved wrong time and again.
:08:18. > :08:21.Our guest is from the Economist Intelligence Unit.
:08:22. > :08:28.Thank you for getting up at this terrible power. Is there a point
:08:29. > :08:32.about the critics to Mario Draghi? If they start turning on the
:08:33. > :08:36.printing press and pushing cheap money into the system, we have seen
:08:37. > :08:40.it with the US Federal Reserve, the bank of Japan, it is being suggested
:08:41. > :08:49.that in the long-term, those policies don't really work.
:08:50. > :08:54.Obviously, there are lots of actions, including the ECB and Bank
:08:55. > :08:57.of Japan, but they all face headwinds at the moment. It is a
:08:58. > :09:02.question of confidence. As much as they try to make money cheaper, with
:09:03. > :09:06.the economy slowing down there is an issue that people are just not
:09:07. > :09:14.confident enough to invest, because they see China slowing down and the
:09:15. > :09:17.global economy. Is it not some of the central banks' fault in the
:09:18. > :09:24.first place that we are seeing China slowdown? We printed all this free
:09:25. > :09:28.money, flooding China, which then built a lot, and now a lot of that
:09:29. > :09:35.money has drained back out and left some emerging economies in a dire
:09:36. > :09:43.state. It has created an awful lot of trouble, Andy quantitative easing
:09:44. > :09:51.is coming back, and there are consequences of that. But to deal
:09:52. > :09:57.with poor global growth prospects, you can't just rely on monetary
:09:58. > :10:00.policy alone. There is also fiscal policy and structural reforms, some
:10:01. > :10:05.of which are under way at the moment. They will take time, and
:10:06. > :10:13.people will say that some economies haven't done the proper reform. Can
:10:14. > :10:16.I ask you this, as a layman I am a bit alarmed. Either that all the
:10:17. > :10:20.numbers in the experts on what they are saying about 2016, I'm worried.
:10:21. > :10:26.If we head towards another sort of global crisis, a big slowdown, there
:10:27. > :10:29.are no more tools or ammunition left in these central bankers to fight.
:10:30. > :10:36.They have already used all of that up fighting their 2008 crisis.
:10:37. > :10:39.Absolutely, and that is why we need to rely on structural reforms and
:10:40. > :10:41.fiscal policy as well. They are a long time coming, so that doesn't
:10:42. > :10:47.bode well. Shares in Amazon tumbled
:10:48. > :10:49.in after-hours trading after results from the online retail
:10:50. > :10:55.giant disappointed Wall Street. Amazon racked up quarterly sales of
:10:56. > :11:01.more than $35 billion in the three months to December - up more
:11:02. > :11:06.than 20 per cent on the previous year - taking annual sales above 100
:11:07. > :11:13.billion for the first time.