07/02/2017 World Business Report

Is the only way up? That is what some optimists say about future

profits from the world's biggest oil companies. The latest earnings from

BP in a few hours. And signed and sealed. 25 years ago today, the

controversial Maastricht Treaty which established the European Union

but could this be the year that more of its key members vote to leave?

Welcome. This is World Business Report, I am Sally Bundock. And baby

boom to baby bust. The true cost of having children. Let's start with

BP. It is its turn to reveal how much money it has recently made, the

news being of interest particularly as oil prices have been recovering

thanks to the agreement reached at the end of last year between OPEC

and non- members to cut production beginning in January this year. If

you look at this graphic, it shows you what's been going on in the last

12 months. You can see the shift in the price of oil. Bottomed out at

around $27.88 a barrel in January 2016 and yesterday trading at $56 a

barrel. EP's competitors are also struggling after two years of low

oil prices. Exxon Mobil reported a 51% fall in annual profits and Royal

Dutch Shell, a 44% dip in annual returns. Wider challenges for BP and

others in the industry including funding investment in new oil

projects, the rise of renewable energy sources and for some, a

concern about their ability to pay shareholder dividends. To answer

some of those questions, I am joined by Alex Ho Byrne, thank you for

coming in. What are we expecting BP to say today? We are expecting full

year 16 results of around $2.9 billion and that will be a fall of

just over 50% year on year. It was previously $5.9 billion. Another

massive fall like Exxon and shell but when you look at the quarterly

numbers, that will sure rise in profits. When the price of oil

started to creep up? An improvement on a quarter on quarter basis and

also an improvement in the quarter on a year-on-year basis owing to the

fact that oil prices bottomed for Brent last year and January. You're

starting to see that come out of the system. The projection for this year

is that prices will stabilise and they will stay around this level

that we are at the moment. Mid- 50s, maybe $60 a barrel. If that is the

case, what is the outlook for BP? Positive. The full-year expectations

are for adjusted net income of about $7.7 billion so clearly a

substantial improvement year-on-year and even eclipsing the results in 15

as well. Does that mean the likes of BP and its competitors out of the

woods? They have had a difficult couple of years with the price of

oil so low. A lot of concerns these companies. It's fair to say the up

through the worst of it and out through the top and the cycle. The

outlook is certainly brighter. Volatility is reduced. The outlook

is for the oil price to remain reasonably stable, rising to around

60, 60 $5 a barrel and it remains unpredictable. They have been

through the worst part of pay. We will leave it there. Thank you for

coming in. The numbers from BP are coming in in one hour and 25

minutes. We will fill you in when we get the numbers and analysis on how

they are doing. Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Maastricht Treaty

known as the Treaty of the European Union. Back then, a real feeling of

optimism and hope that what the EU could achieve. He would have

predicted the financial and political turmoil the union would

come up against. It was here that the euro was conceived. This was a

moment of hope and optimism, at least for European political

leaders. A quarter of a century on, the EU's blue and yellow flag looks

a little tattered. We have had, arguably still had, the eurozone

financial crisis, Britain deciding to leave and the rise of anti-EU

political groups in several countries and perhaps the chance

they will take power at in countries that were founders of the project,

France and the Netherlands. And the election of Donald Trump creates new

and unpredictable challenges to Europe. He doesn't seem to think

much of the EU. He said the British decision was so smart. He has

certainly rattled Brussels. The president of the European Council,

Donald task, wrote to the Council, telling them: Maastricht was

intended to create a new, more congenial environment for business

with less uncertainty but it feels like a long time ago. Other stories

here in the UK. The government will declare England's housing market is

broken as it sets out its proposals for fixing it. Housing white paper

is expected to include a promise to build more homes and make renters

more secure. 250,000 new homes are needed every year and the government

has admitted they are lagging behind schedule. US TV maker Vizio has

agreed to play over $2 billion over allegations it collected viewing

data over its customers. Federal Trade Commission says companies

captured images on what was being viewed on screen and the date was

sold on to third parties according to the FTC. Vizio says the data

centre could not be traced back to individuals. Ballet, Karachi,

swimming, soccer, Mandarin classes. This is Elon Musk behind me. I'm not

talking about him. I'm talking about a handful of activities children in

Asia are signed up from a young age and all of them cost a lot of money

but how much is too much? Mariko Oi, our correspondent in Asia, decided

to use her household Budget as a test series. Welcome to the life of

the two-year-old. In addition to that child care, her weekend is

jampacked with extracurricular activities. Metre tiger mum. Yes,

it's me. We think these activities are great for her but they are not

cheap. We decided to teach swimming at home because we already spent 300

-- $300 on the $400 on extracurricular activities and that

is on top of the $1000 in childcare and we have another one coming. As

the child gets older, the list only gets longer and longer. Those days,

I am doing soccer. Wednesdays, I do swimming. In fact, EV's mother

started a website which lists extracurricular activities for

children. We saw such a high demand from our advertisers and clients to

reach out to the parent market. That website has coding the kids, soccer,

tennis. It's such a wide range. Ballet and swimming. There is a mini

MBA for children. You heard it right. And many MBA for children.

But are we at risk of over scheduling our children's weekends?

And is there a clear benefit that a child psychologist sees in children

who do extracurricular activities? I guess the word you are looking for

is purposefully engage. It does not mean a child was enrolled in a lot

of classes will do better than a child who is not but it is a child

is at home, engaged in any classes but they are doing a lot of

activities at home with their parents, they are doing well. Boros,

raising our daughter to be fluent in my mother tongue, Japanese, is very

important. Many children in Asia are also taking up Mandarin. But the

issue of all -- over scheduling, we may need to reconsider our household

budgets once our second child arrives. That is that the financial

markets. The fall in Japan as the yen gets even stronger. That gives

you a sense of how things are going. I will see you soon.