28/02/2017 World Business Report

Now for the latest financial news with Sally Bundock

The cost of the nationwide cash withdrawal, India will reveal how

much growth has stalled since its controversial

5G connectivity - what is its true potential?

Rory Cellan Jones has been finding out at the Mobile World Congress in

In a minute we'll hear more about a tie-up between two huge

But first, could India become the engine which drives

The world's second-most populated country has attracted the attention

of companies and governments, all keen to make the most

In a few hours we'll find out exactly how fast the economy

is growing as India gives us their first GDP reading

since November's radical demonetisation experiment.

Investors will be comparing it to the 7.3% growth seen in the three

months from July to September last year, but economists don't expect

the figure to be so high this time around.

And that's mainly due to the government's surprise move

on November the 8th to replace about 86%

This has had a huge impact in India, where 9 out of 10 transactions

It's one of a number of reforms which are "historic and are bearing

fruit," according to a newly released report from

the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

One of the other positives that the OECD picks out

is the "comprehensive tax reform" that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's

We have spoken about this at length, the detail and the chaos caused by

that move in November. Today we will find out the impact on the economy?

That's right. It is the first real data that will be coming out and

that will give some to how that experimental exercise in Pak are the

Indian economy. -- impacted the Indian economy. The government put

the ban in place in the first week of November. After that, businesses

took a hit. Consumer spending was hit. Demand went down. That is why

most economists have been really struggling to gauge how much it has

really hurt the economy. This data is going to be very, very important

in that sense. The BBC's economics editor spoke to India's finance

minister and asked him why the government had to take the step, and

how it had impacted the economy. (INAUDIBLE). OK, clearly we cannot

hear that interview, which is a shame. Maybe we will get that

soundbite later on. But just give us a sense of what he said to our

economics editor, because it has been very controversial, hasn't it?

Because many rural farmers and rural communities have really suffered

since the government made that move. That is right. It was a very

controversial move, one of the biggest economic reforms in the last

60 or 70 years. But the minister defended the decision. He said it

was imperative because there was a high level of corruption, and the

whole intention was to bring down the amount of untaxed wealth in the

economy, the black economy, or black wealth, as it is called in India. It

is a huge component of the economy, it is also referred to as the

parallel economy. Some people say it is as high as 70% of the country's

entire GDP. The Prime Minister says this will clamp down on the number

of people who do not pay tax, which is a very small number in India, and

the about 1% of the population pays tax. The government says it will

help crack down on those people who do not pay tax, and bring them under

the law, and strict action can be taken against them. But I think the

key question is what happens in the long-term, the medium to long-term.

That is where the government is quite confident. Even this latest

report that has come out talks about that, that some of the reforms the

government has taken are on the right track, and really the impact

of this band is going to be short-term, 6-8 months. But can

India bounce back after that? That is the big question, and we will the

answer today. OK, thank you. You will keep this up-to-date today,

because those numbers are coming through in a few hours. As you can

tell, this is very much a live programme here at BBC World News,

instead not always go to plan. But that interview with the country's

finance minister, you will hear that later on today, but you can also

catch it online as well, it is on our website.

Now more from the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

As you know, our technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones

is there, and has been finding out about the potential

5G is the term everybody is handy in around here at Mobile World

Congress. There is a lot of hype around the next generation of mobile

phone networks. Intel has gone as far as to build an experimental 5G

network at it stands to illustrate the possible uses of it. There is a

driverless car demonstration, the theory being that lots and lots of

data will be produced by cars like that. They will need the kind of

data capacity that 5G can offer. Your whole home will be connected to

the internet, and as I said, there is a lot of hype around it and I

have been speaking to Intel's I share evidence about whether that is

really justified. For consumers, I would like them to think about what

life was like about smartphones -- without smartphones. Start with

that. Smartphones allow consumers to talk to each other, to get onto the

internet, but all of the other things around the consumers today

are not connected. Cars, for example, are not connected. That is

going to be on the network, that is going to have live maps, driving

around in a smart city. You are also going to have a distribution of

media that today is not possible, in terms of video. All of those things

are coming. We were promised all of that with four G. Four G is still

rolling out for people. What is the difference between four G and 5G. Is

it simply speed? It is speed, and it is also getting the network ready

for the other machines coming onto the network. 4G is really about data

communication onto the internet. It doesn't allow robotics, it doesn't

allow autonomous driving, like if the majority of cars are autonomous.

It doesn't deliver all of that bandwidth yet. 5G gets us ready for

that next step. And is it actually going to come as quickly as some

people seem to think? Aren't they going to be delays? Aren't they

going to be arguments over standards, over what the right

technology actually is? Yes, it is. We are going to have delays. We are

going to arguments and physics issues. You know what? It is going

to come fast. In 2020 you'll start seeing commercial deployments. Yes,

there will be delays. It is never as fast as the wireless people say, but

it will be much quicker than it took the 4G.

Some of you may not even have three G yet, depending on where you are

watching us around the world. That's how much Saudi Arabia's state

oil firm is investing in an oil refinery set up by Malaysia's state

oil company Petronas. The deal comes as the Saudi King

Salman arrived in Kuala Lumpur to kick off a multi-nation tour

aimed at boosting economic Sharanjit Leyl joins us

from our Asia Business Hub. Quite exciting, isn't it? Two

powerhouses coming together, big investments by Saudi Arabia into

Malaysia. That is right, so big that it makes Saudi Arabia's state oil

firm the single biggest investor into Malaysia. Of course, this deal

is between them and the Malaysian state-owned energy company Petronas.

They are investing in this huge refinery project in southern

Malaysia. What is interesting is that this marks a dramatic reversal

from earlier this year when we heard from industry sources that the deal

was off, that had planned to pull out of this deal at the time. --

Aramco had planned. But Petronas and Aramco executives are now scheduled

to sign the agreement today, and they are saying that Petronas may

have had to make some concessions in order to make this huge deal happen.

Thank you, good to see you. Let's show you the financial markets,

because once again they are making the lines. In the United States, a

record close for the Dow Jones industrial average for the 12th day

in a row. The biggest winning streak. And like 30 years. Asia has

a mixed response to that at the moment. But we can show you that the

US is all in anticipation of Donald Trump's speech later today, and his

ambitions and plans for the world's guest economy. I will see you soon.

A new wave of industrial action in jails in England and Wales will

begin tomorrow.