: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. > :00:22.The World's largest insurer, AXA, stubs out almost $2 billion worth
:00:23. > :00:25.Japan's Central bank governor defends his negative interest rate
:00:26. > :00:28.policy, and warns that the UK leaving the EU would be
:00:29. > :00:44.Welcome to World Business Report, I'm Victoria Fritz.
:00:45. > :00:47.In a minute we'll look ahead to Ryanair's full year results.
:00:48. > :00:49.But first, the world's largest insurer, French AXA,
:00:50. > :00:52.will stop investing in the tobacco industry and sell investments worth
:00:53. > :01:21.It says investing in the sector makes no sense,
:01:22. > :01:23.given that smoking kills some six million people a year.
:01:24. > :01:27.The move by Axa is an attempt to support government efforts to reduce
:01:28. > :01:30.Imogen Foulkes met up with AXA's incoming Chief Executive,
:01:31. > :01:35.The reason is very simple. We are a large provider of healthcare
:01:36. > :01:40.insurance, and what we are seeing more and more is that chronic
:01:41. > :01:47.diseases cost a lot of money. We need to invest more into prevention
:01:48. > :01:52.and we really want to support that and not invest in tobacco, which
:01:53. > :01:58.creates more diseases. Aren't you a bit late with this? Your health
:01:59. > :02:03.insurance company, it is more than 50 years since governments were
:02:04. > :02:09.first warned about the dangers of tobacco. You can only really see
:02:10. > :02:14.now, in tobacco, but it has turned from a lethal disease to a chronic
:02:15. > :02:20.disease. Now is the right time to do it and it is a time where the public
:02:21. > :02:27.awareness for prevention is much higher. For prevention, you need the
:02:28. > :02:34.willingness of the institution to do it, and also the willingness of the
:02:35. > :02:43.individual. Is one of the reasons also, of all the time it has taken
:02:44. > :02:52.to diversify, that tobacco was traditionally a good, safe
:02:53. > :02:56.investment? If you look at some angles, you could say it is a very
:02:57. > :02:59.interesting investment. But there are other products that are very
:03:00. > :03:04.interesting to us. It is important as an investor to invest in
:03:05. > :03:14.something that is stable. Will it affect the finances of AXA? It will
:03:15. > :03:21.definitely affect the finances, but you have two sides. You have one
:03:22. > :03:23.side where if you diversify and lose the unit and potentially have to
:03:24. > :03:29.reinvest in something else, but on the other hand you have less claims
:03:30. > :03:37.the cost if you achieve making use of prevention and have lower chronic
:03:38. > :03:40.diseases. For us it is positive and therefore also positive for
:03:41. > :03:54.shareholders. Japan's central bank governor has
:03:55. > :03:57.told the BBC that a UK exit from the European Union would be
:03:58. > :04:00.a major risk to global growth. The Bank of Japan's Haruhiko Kuroda
:04:01. > :04:03.also defended his controversial Mr. Kuroda was speaking with
:04:04. > :04:06.our Asia Business Correspondent, Karishma Vaswani, on the sidelines
:04:07. > :04:16.of the G7 meetings in Japan. It is up to British people to decide
:04:17. > :04:31.whether or not to exit from the EU. But suddenly in the latest G20
:04:32. > :04:40.communication, it has been shown that this could potentially be quite
:04:41. > :04:46.serious. If a Brexit is agreed, it could have significant is on the
:04:47. > :04:53.global economy. What about on Japan's economy? I'm afraid that
:04:54. > :05:03.through charade, and the global economy, including Japan, as well as
:05:04. > :05:08.the US, that could be affected. But as I said, the decision is up to the
:05:09. > :05:15.British people. The implementation of negative into dressed by black --
:05:16. > :05:17.interest rates in January took everybody by surprise. When do you
:05:18. > :05:24.think it will start to have an impact on Japan's economy and what
:05:25. > :05:28.are the options if it doesn't? We announced it in January, and
:05:29. > :05:35.implemented the new policy in the middle of February. We are still
:05:36. > :05:46.early in May. Although the impact on the financial market is quite clear
:05:47. > :05:52.already, the impact on the greater economy and prices will take some
:05:53. > :05:58.more time. I don't say that it will take one or two years or something
:05:59. > :06:10.like that. It would have an impact on the economy soon. If we think it
:06:11. > :06:24.is necessary to achieve 2% inflation, we can change our
:06:25. > :06:25.monetary policy. I think we have still got enough room to do
:06:26. > :06:36.something. In other news: Exports from Japan
:06:37. > :06:39.fell by 10% in April compared with It's the seventh consecutive
:06:40. > :06:42.month of falls. Imports plunged 23%,
:06:43. > :06:44.putting the trade balance The weak trade data is thought to be
:06:45. > :06:49.mainly due to poorer demand from The Greek parliament has approved
:06:50. > :06:52.several economic and financial reforms after
:06:53. > :06:54.a bitter four-day emergency debate The bill includes tax rises,
:06:55. > :06:58.and also creates a privatisation Thousands
:06:59. > :07:07.of people demonstrated outside Egypt has enlisted
:07:08. > :07:13.a robotic submarine to search the Mediterranean seabed
:07:14. > :07:15.for the black boxes of the missing EgyptAir plane that
:07:16. > :07:17.vanished from radar on Thursday. It is hoped that the recorders
:07:18. > :07:20.can determine whether the plane The Airbus A320 was en route
:07:21. > :07:31.from Paris to Cairo with 66 people With me is John Strickland,
:07:32. > :07:48.airline expert from JLS Consulting. What is worse for the industry in
:07:49. > :07:51.terms of sentiment, if we find out it was an attack or an accident?
:07:52. > :08:05.Does it matter whether it is difficult to give an answer in
:08:06. > :08:11.precise terms. Neither is good. --? It is difficult. We would expect to
:08:12. > :08:14.see a technical fault that would point to wider questions about the
:08:15. > :08:22.use of that aircraft. Unfortunately we may also becoming more used to a
:08:23. > :08:25.terrorist attack occurring. If we would even further back to one of
:08:26. > :08:30.the biggest terrorist attacks with the twin towers back in 2001, what
:08:31. > :08:37.we see overtime is that those kind of attacks tend to be recovered
:08:38. > :08:43.from. It does worry people at a time when we are not certain exactly what
:08:44. > :08:51.caused what. Be disparaged picture that is opening up because of the
:08:52. > :08:56.response to these big issues worldwide, one of them companies
:08:57. > :09:01.that has done very well is Ryanair. They seem to be in a very strong
:09:02. > :09:09.position and we will be hearing their results later today. Yes, over
:09:10. > :09:14.1 billion euros is the expectation. They continue to grow last year.
:09:15. > :09:21.They watch their costs tremendously, that is helped by the falling price
:09:22. > :09:29.of fuel. They are giving a lot of savings back into their affairs. The
:09:30. > :09:35.low fare approach a dog is to their advantage, because it puts pressure
:09:36. > :09:39.on the competitors. They also put effort into customer service which
:09:40. > :09:45.seems to have paid off. And you will stay with those -- with us to
:09:46. > :09:54.discuss those results later on. Asian session has been mixed,
:09:55. > :09:57.markets have started to entertain the prospect of a rate rise
:09:58. > :10:00.in the States, after Fed meeting minutes showed policymakers weren't
:10:01. > :10:02.shying away from raising rates Japan's Nikkei was hurt on worrying
:10:03. > :10:06.economic data on manufacturing trade imbalances, as well
:10:07. > :10:09.as reports that Japan's sales tax