:00:00. > :00:00.Now for the latest financial news with Aaron Heslehurst
:00:00. > :00:21.South Africas battered economy tries to recover from a double downgrade,
:00:22. > :00:24.but it won't be easy - especially trying to borrow money
:00:25. > :00:40.Yep, how a group of enterprising Berliners, fed up with paying ever
:00:41. > :00:42.more for their daily train tickets clubbed together
:00:43. > :00:53.We're going to take a ride with them.
:00:54. > :01:06.Welcome to the programme. If you give me your eight minutes, I will
:01:07. > :01:08.give you an exciting snapshot of the world of business and money. We will
:01:09. > :01:10.start south, South Africa in that. As South Africa's president
:01:11. > :01:12.Jacob Zuma celebrates his 75th birthday, festivities may be rather
:01:13. > :01:15.more low key than usual. In less than a week,
:01:16. > :01:18.the country's members of parliament are scheduled to hold a vote of no
:01:19. > :01:21.confidence against the President. Well it comes after he ousted some
:01:22. > :01:24.of his key political opponents Today, members of the public
:01:25. > :01:29.are expected to take to the streets in protest of the move,
:01:30. > :01:32.but Mr Zuma's decision also has South Africa has been downgraded
:01:33. > :01:36.to "junk status" by two of the leading debt ratings
:01:37. > :01:38.agencies - Fitch and S They argue that the reshuffle
:01:39. > :01:41.will hamper the country's efforts The government's debt pile continues
:01:42. > :01:45.to grow and the loss of its "investment grade" status
:01:46. > :01:48.could have a significant impact on South Africa's ability to borrow
:01:49. > :01:51.money on international markets. It means that major institutions
:01:52. > :01:53.such as pension funds and hedge funds may be prevented
:01:54. > :01:56.from buying the country's debt. on South Africa's ability to borrow
:01:57. > :02:05.money on international markets. It means that major institutions
:02:06. > :02:08.such as pension funds and hedge funds may be prevented
:02:09. > :02:29.from buying the country's debt. Lesiba Mothata, Chief Economist
:02:30. > :02:31.at Investment Solutions, South Africa, who joins
:02:32. > :02:40.me from Johannesburg. Great have you on the programme.
:02:41. > :02:44.Briefly, for people around the world watching us who don't normally
:02:45. > :02:50.follow this sort of money news, camera just highlight how important
:02:51. > :02:55.it is about this junk status. This makes it incredibly difficult and
:02:56. > :03:03.very expensive for your country, South Africa, to service its
:03:04. > :03:07.economy, basically, right? In need, because when you get downgraded to
:03:08. > :03:13.junk in this way, what it normally ensues is higher interest on debt
:03:14. > :03:19.and actually, we begin to even see a weaker economic outcome in the
:03:20. > :03:23.environment in South Africa where we have found that private businesses
:03:24. > :03:28.have not been invested back into the economy. In fact, a deep recession,
:03:29. > :03:32.in terms of private investments and all of these things are going to
:03:33. > :03:41.negatively impact of this confidence, negatively impact
:03:42. > :03:46.consumer confidence and the country, we were expecting about 1.3% growth,
:03:47. > :03:51.it is looking a bit more dire than what we would have seen before what
:03:52. > :03:57.has ensued in the political realm. Talking of the political realm, what
:03:58. > :04:04.is President Jacob Zuma doing? What is behind the reshuffle and is he to
:04:05. > :04:12.blame? You know, a permitted leak on for the whole recall of the Finance
:04:13. > :04:18.Minister from the international roadshow -- admittedly. We saw this
:04:19. > :04:21.before, South Africa was on an negatively watched. They were
:04:22. > :04:26.looking at other offenders including weak growth as part of the reason of
:04:27. > :04:32.those downgrades but that this is actually created a situation where
:04:33. > :04:40.they pulled the rug under the feet of South Africa in terms of ratings
:04:41. > :04:43.as a result of these heightened political risks. You will meet the
:04:44. > :04:51.new Finance Minister later on today. What are you hoping? Basically, the
:04:52. > :04:58.question is, and you are a cheap economist so you would know, how you
:04:59. > :05:04.turn that Africa around? -- South Africa. Well, it's a tough
:05:05. > :05:10.environment and it requires what happened in 1998 West South Korea
:05:11. > :05:18.made a declaration that there would be no bailout and they created a
:05:19. > :05:22.situation that guarantees that state enterprises were reduced and they
:05:23. > :05:27.made it clear that the growth economy would open up top foreign
:05:28. > :05:36.investments. These are the things that are required. Admittedly, the
:05:37. > :05:40.ideological is similar to what we would see out of South Korea. Good
:05:41. > :05:43.luck with the meeting at later on today.
:05:44. > :05:47.Hey, some good news for all those Chinese companies that make stuff
:05:48. > :05:53.For the first time in 7mths - the price they pay for the raw
:05:54. > :05:55.materials they need to make all that stuff -
:05:56. > :06:03.Sharanjit Leyl is in our Asia Business Hub in Singapore.
:06:04. > :06:20.Is it good news for the consumer, does it mean? Yes and no, Arryn.
:06:21. > :06:27.What you talk of if the producer price index and as you say, calling
:06:28. > :06:32.for the first time for seven months in March. It action the rose that
:06:33. > :06:40.month from the year earlier but it's still incredibly the easing of the
:06:41. > :06:47.previous month will be sorry gain of 7.8% and that was a nine-year high.
:06:48. > :06:54.That is due to the massive rally we have seen in China's commodity
:06:55. > :06:59.markets. There are measures to cool the country's overheated housing
:07:00. > :07:05.market and that will slow a lot of demand for steel and the building
:07:06. > :07:08.materials that you need to build big skyscrapers so, talking about the
:07:09. > :07:13.consumer price inflation earlier, as I said, that was only up a little
:07:14. > :07:20.and well within the bank's comfort zone. We have seen a lot of policy
:07:21. > :07:30.makers continue to try to push the pace of money policy tightening.
:07:31. > :07:37.Sharanjit Leyl, great to talk to you.
:07:38. > :07:39.For decades, Deutsche Bahn has dominated Germany's
:07:40. > :07:45.But one plucky Berlin start-up is taking on the corporate giant
:07:46. > :07:49.with a single rival trainline, that runs once a day to Stuttgart -
:07:50. > :07:51.launched via a crowd funding campaign.
:07:52. > :08:06.Could others now follow suit Joe Miller reports.
:08:07. > :08:16.A familiar sight in every German city. One of the larger's rail
:08:17. > :08:23.operators, Deutsche Bahn, enjoys a near monopoly. That is being
:08:24. > :08:27.challenged by the arrival of some enterprising Berliners. You're
:08:28. > :08:33.started in December and until now, 70,000 customers have joined us on
:08:34. > :08:36.board. Whistles financing over a crowd funding campaign where we
:08:37. > :08:46.collect nearly 1 million euros. If you are looking to get from A to
:08:47. > :08:50.B as quickly as possible, this is not the journey for you. It takes
:08:51. > :09:00.more than six hours to get from Berlin to Stuttgart. But this is its
:09:01. > :09:03.21st-century equivalent to the railway journey complete with a
:09:04. > :09:08.beacon and organic bar. Not everyone is on board for the experience
:09:09. > :09:15.alone. I played 22 euros to get here. It is a good price, I think.
:09:16. > :09:24.The difference between the State Railway and this one is to around 15
:09:25. > :09:28.minutes and not more. We want to run more than one chain. We are now
:09:29. > :09:32.starting to prepare for a second train and a second line but I don't
:09:33. > :09:38.know if they will be more competitors because it took a lot of
:09:39. > :09:47.time to prepare everything. -- train. We will see. It may not be
:09:48. > :09:50.full steam ahead just yet but if this start-up can keep a heavy pace,
:09:51. > :10:00.others may follow in its tracks. Follow me on Twitter. I will be back
:10:01. > :10:19.with James to take a look at some of the papers from around the world.
:10:20. > :10:22.More than 50,000 disabled people have had specially adapted vehicles
:10:23. > :10:25.taken away after the introduction of a new disability benefit.