21/11/2016 World Business Report

France in focus - as competition narrows to become the next

president, we look at the challenges facing one

We visit farmers struggling to cope after the government withdrew

the majority of bank notes from circulation.

Also in the programme: Facebook likes London.

and will add 500 new staff next year despite Brexit.

Politics in Europe could be set for a big shake-up next

year with two of the continents biggest economies holding elections.

Germany votes for its chancellor in September,

with Angela Merkel saying she will run for a fourth term.

But first, France will pick a new president in the spring.

Overnight Francois Fillon and Alain Juppe came top

for the centre-right Republicans party, while former president

But what challenges will the new French president be facing?

Last week the government lowered it's growth expectations for 2016

as a whole saying it expected just 1.4%.

France's independent fiscal watchdog says the figure is optimistic.

remains stubbornly high at 9.7% - this a problem for current

President Francois Hollande who has repeatedly said he would not run

for a second term in 2017 if unemployment didn't decline

"significantly and credibly" by the end of his first.

The former economy minister, Emmanuel Macron,

He's proposing ditching France's 35-hour working week for young

people in a bid to give them more experience.

And another big shake up has been pitched by another

candidate - Marine Le Pen of the far-right Front National.

She wants a referendum on whether France should

With me is Philippa Malmgren, founder of the DRPM Group and a top

It is good to see you. There is so much to discuss and we can't cover

it all, but France and Germany next year, Holland as well, and the

referendum in Italy a few weeks away. That is right. Everywhere we

are seeing a similar pattern which is, people have been in a lot of

economic pain and they were willing to take that pain based on the idea

that eventually it would get better and now it has been too long, so

they have ran out of patience and we are seeing this in the US,

explaining the election of Donald Trump, it was a lot of the force

behind Brexit and now we are seeing these forces unfolding in Europe.

And France has had a really difficult few years in the run-up to

the election next year because it has had multiple terrorist attacks

which are absolutely horrendous and enormous in their impact, the

economy has been struggling, it has been the poor cousin in Europe for

many years, that has been a real problem, and pushing through labour

reforms, there has been strike action affecting the country. Yes.

Absolutely. It is a similar pattern to other parts of Europe as well,

and many countries have been showing their resistance to the current kind

of economic strategy which is perceived to be led by the EU, so we

saw the Hungarians almost vote out of the EU, not quite, but very

close, and the Italians on December the fourth will vote as well, so I

think we should not be surprised to see a little bit more

antiestablishment, anti- orthodoxy approach. A very similar feel to

what was going on in the US and it is interesting that Marine Le Pen

was one of the first to congratulate Donald Trump and it seems to give

her the mandate as well, Brexit and what happened in the US. She is

picking up on a fight where there seems to be a global movement, it is

not just a local thing, and I don't know that it is really true. Of

course, what do Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen have in common, not

much, but the sense that they are outsiders, but they are coming in to

displace a long established party political leaders is important. And

the question is can they deliver the economic promises that they are

putting forward to the voters? I think of all the British and

Americans have the greatest chance of delivering on the promises, Trump

and Theresa May, but in France, I am not so sure, a lot of changes would

be required. And difficult ones too. Thank you so much for coming in.

Let's have a look at some other big stories, and a big interesting one

here. Facebook says it will expand

its presence here in the UK by 50% when it opens its new London

headquarters next year. It will hire 500 additional

employees, including engineers, marketers, project

managers and sales staff. Facebook says the United Kingdom

remains one of the best places in the world to be a technology

company. The majority of the 500 additional staff will be based at

its new London headquarters set to open in 2017. Many of the roles will

be highly skilled engineering jobs. The UK hosts the company's largest

engineering base outside of the United States. There has been some

speculation following the UK referendum vote to leave the EU that

international companies may reconsider their investment

decisions. Facebook's announcement comes just a week after Google said

it will spend $1.2 billion on a new London headquarters and the creation

of 3000 new jobs by 2020. Facebook's latest news appears to be another

endorsement of Europe's biggest financial centre.

It's been almost two weeks since the Indian government suddenly

withdrew most of the bank notes in circulation.

It's caused a cash crisis across the country.

In rural areas the situation is particularly bad -

large numbers of people there don't even use banks let alone have access

So how can India's villages become part of the 'cashless economy' that

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hopes to create?

When winter sets in it is time to plant the onion crop. Fields like

this would usually be packed with farmers, but now there is no cash to

pay their wages. TRANSLATION: There are very long queues at banks so my

employer says he doesn't have cash to give me. He will pay me in a few

weeks but we need money to buy milk and food for my children. Cash is a

lifeline for rule India. A major reason is that most villages in the

country don't have easy access to banking services. To reach out to

rural parts of the country where there are no banks, the plan is to

deploy banking correspondents, people who will travel to villages

providing financial services. I'd even if everyone were to get access

to a banking account, how could cashless transactions then be in

short? Well, perhaps less, a mobile phone, could be the answer. At one

village in the western state they are trying it out. Eight kilos dal.

Customers can make payments by sending a text from their mobile

phones. It was set up by the private bank and village authority.

TRANSLATION: They don't keep cash on hand here so if you want to buy

anything you do it using their mobile phones. That is why everyone

in the village is happy with the announcement. We have not been

affected. The number of mobile phone users in the real India has been

growing rapidly and cellular networks are slowly reaching even

the remote areas of India but it is not an instant solution. For now the

few banks that cater to rule areas are struggling to cope with a cash

crisis. -- rural areas. And for these villagers there is no easy

escape. Leaders from Asia-Pacific nations

have closed their annual summit in Peru, pledging to

support global trade. The 21 nations said

they are committed to open markets and fighting against all

forms protectionism. In a statement they encouraged

signatories of the Trans-Pacific Partnership to continue supporting

it, despite fears it may not That is a big message, isn't it,

sent in the direction of Mr Donald Trump, the President-elect. In deed,

I think it's fair to say that the fate of the TPP dominated much of

the summit. Of course, these leaders worked hard for many years to come

to an agreement only for US President-elect Donald Trump, as you

mentioned, wanting to scrap it. They came out, as you mentioned, saying

that they would continue to support free trade. Whether or not that

means it without the United States remains unclear. It was a slightly

tricky meeting for President Obama who said he continues to support the

TPP. China has been quick to take advantage of the situation. It is

not part of the TPP and it is pursuing its own free-trade deal

known as the RCEP, and so that might actually possibly replace the TPP

should it actually get scrapped by the next President. All right,

thanks a lot, good to see you, Mariko. Let's have a look at the

market so you can see how the brand-new trading week in Asia is

going and you can see the price is up over 1% in anticipation that OPEC

will agree to a supply cut deal and they have a meeting very soon, so

oil is sensitive to that. That is all from me for now. I will see you

soon. An influential group of MPs has

issued a warning that the number of Royal Navy's warships

is "woefully low."