:00:16. > :00:18.Going... Going...
:00:19. > :00:26.Gone - Angela Merkel is the last G5 leader standing but can she hold on?
:00:27. > :00:33.We ask whether Germany's economy can help keep her in power.
:00:34. > :00:36.leaders of South Korea's biggest businesses are questioned
:00:37. > :00:48.on live television over a corruption scandal involving the president.
:00:49. > :00:55.Also in the programme we take you to the grocery shop
:00:56. > :00:57.where there are no Qs and no check-outs.
:00:58. > :01:09.In a few hours' time, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel
:01:10. > :01:11.will address her party as political uncertainty continues
:01:12. > :01:19.2016 has been a year of political upheaval,
:01:20. > :01:22.with many world leaders either gone or in the process of going:
:01:23. > :01:26.Barack Obama, Francois Hollande, David Cameron and, yesterday,
:01:27. > :01:29.Italy's Matteo Renzi handed in his resignation,
:01:30. > :01:38.So is Angela Merkel now a leader from a different political time?
:01:39. > :01:42.Or will she prove to have the necessary staying power
:01:43. > :01:47.in an era of more populist, anti-EU parties?
:01:48. > :01:53.Germany is viewed by many as the engine-room of the Eurozone.
:01:54. > :01:56.But the latest data shows its economy has been
:01:57. > :01:59.under-performing, with growth halving to just 0.2%
:02:00. > :02:07.Exports are critical accounting for around 47% of all economic
:02:08. > :02:12.activity and there are concerns poor economic performance could be
:02:13. > :02:17.The United Kingdom is Germany's third biggest trading partner
:02:18. > :02:19.and there are fears this relationship could suffer
:02:20. > :02:22.when Britain leaves the European Union.
:02:23. > :02:25.Despite this, Germany has benefited from a flood of cheap money
:02:26. > :02:29.as the European Central Bank continues its landmark $1.9 trillion
:02:30. > :02:33.stimulus package across the eurozone.
:02:34. > :02:35.This has boosted German exporters by keeping the value
:02:36. > :02:44.With me is Marc Ostwald, Foreign Exchange Strategist
:02:45. > :02:49.at ADM Investor Services International.
:02:50. > :02:58.Good morning. Nice to see you. It certainly has been a surprising and
:02:59. > :03:05.shocking year for some leaders, not others. What are the challenges
:03:06. > :03:12.facing Angela Merkel and she says she wants to go another time in a
:03:13. > :03:17.general election? She has found the constellation of the right moment to
:03:18. > :03:24.stand again after a lot of internal struggling. Interestingly, in the
:03:25. > :03:31.opinion poll, ever since she declared her candidacy, they are
:03:32. > :03:36.standing by her by about four percentage points. As much as the
:03:37. > :03:42.German economy slowed quite markedly in the third quarter, it looks like
:03:43. > :03:50.it is picking up a bit in the fourth quarter. Some of the acute worries
:03:51. > :03:57.which were putting her under a lot of pressure, her policy on refugees
:03:58. > :04:03.which many Germans do not agree with - certainly not the Liberal degree
:04:04. > :04:09.of it - has subsided. Whatever people might think of the rights and
:04:10. > :04:16.wrongs of the Turkish government decision. It has actually been
:04:17. > :04:23.boosted by the arrival refugees, the German economy. That was a bold move
:04:24. > :04:29.to accept a million refugees which many in Germany were not happy at
:04:30. > :04:34.all about. You saying that in the year, she will be the leader that at
:04:35. > :04:41.the trend and state. It will be about the continuity candidate and
:04:42. > :04:46.not a new populist party? Yes, one has to understand the German
:04:47. > :04:51.economy, even if it has slowed somewhat, it is actually doing
:04:52. > :04:56.really well. There is no reason to unseat Angela Merkel in the way that
:04:57. > :05:00.in Italy, the UK and France people feel uncomfortable about the way the
:05:01. > :05:05.economy is going. In Germany, most people feel there is a certain
:05:06. > :05:11.degree of complacency with the economy growing, there is no other
:05:12. > :05:16.obvious leader, either. In the new year, what will be the political
:05:17. > :05:25.risk - France? It is. Most certainly. We do not really know how
:05:26. > :05:29.Marine Le Pen it will be challenged. They will have to shift to the
:05:30. > :05:38.centre to challenge her. We will report on how the speech
:05:39. > :05:40.that Angela Merkel does later today to her party.
:05:41. > :05:43.The heads of South Korea's biggest businesses are being questioned
:05:44. > :05:46.on live television in relation to the scandal that has engulfed
:05:47. > :05:51.The leaders of Samsung and Hyundai are among those testifying before
:05:52. > :05:57.They'll be asked whether they were pressured by the president
:05:58. > :06:00.or her close friend, Choi Soon-sil, to donate millions of dollars to two
:06:01. > :06:07.foundations in exchange for special treatment.
:06:08. > :06:22.Nice to see you. Feel us in on what is going on? This is indeed
:06:23. > :06:28.unprecedented. I mean, eight corporate titans in a Parliamentary
:06:29. > :06:35.enquiry and this is the latest chapter in President Park Geun-hye
:06:36. > :06:45.ongoing scandal, she is accused of colluding with a confidant. The
:06:46. > :06:50.leaders of these biggest businesses in South Korea are being questioned
:06:51. > :06:57.before an enquiry of corruption, Samsung, LG, Hyundai Motor and five
:06:58. > :07:03.other conglomerates. They have denied the accusations in this
:07:04. > :07:10.Parliamentary investigation. These corporate titans have never appeared
:07:11. > :07:14.in public. They are normally not seen and do not speak in public but
:07:15. > :07:19.today they raised their right-hand and promised to tell the truth and
:07:20. > :07:25.then they were subject to what they are not used to, hard questioning.
:07:26. > :07:30.The moment of truth is today. President Park Geun-hye faces an
:07:31. > :07:36.impeachment vote. Huge demonstrations have called for her
:07:37. > :07:40.to read and her rating has plunged to just 4%. Thank you very much
:07:41. > :07:42.indeed. Amazon has revealed
:07:43. > :07:44.plans for a grocery shop where customers will instead pay
:07:45. > :07:48.for the goods they have selected The Just Walk Out shopping
:07:49. > :07:51.experience uses the same types of technologies found
:07:52. > :07:53.in self-driving cars. The system detects when items
:07:54. > :07:57.are taken or returned to shelves and tracks them in a virtual
:07:58. > :08:00.shopping trolley. Once the shopper leaves the store,
:08:01. > :08:20.their Amazon account will be charged Sounds simple. Collaboration to stop
:08:21. > :08:32.images and videos inappropriate to spread on their side. The database
:08:33. > :08:42.will be used to screen violent and stop material to be shared. Xi
:08:43. > :08:49.Jinping and that Cameron went to a pub. It has been bought in
:08:50. > :08:58.Buckinghamshire, near mere. Mr Cameron took Xi Jinping in October
:08:59. > :09:08.2000 15. I have not been there for a pint but it is near me. Markets in
:09:09. > :09:17.Asia are rallying high today. The Dow Jones closing on a record high.
:09:18. > :09:25.Monetary policy in the US sees rates going higher and the dollar goes
:09:26. > :09:34.higher. Looking at the currencies... The Dow Jones up by 45 points. That
:09:35. > :09:39.is all from World Business Report for the time being, we will discuss
:09:40. > :09:45.some of those stories mentioned when we look at what is going on in the
:09:46. > :09:51.news today, in a couple of minutes. See you then.