Browse content similar to 12/05/2017. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Now it's time for World Business Report. | :00:00. | :00:16. | |
Zooming exports and crumbling classrooms. | :00:17. | :00:18. | |
The paradox of Germany's lopsided economy. | :00:19. | :00:25. | |
Plus will Iran stay open for business? | :00:26. | :00:27. | |
Conservatives pledge to roll back Rouhani's reforms, | :00:28. | :00:28. | |
as companies nervously await next week's presidential election. | :00:29. | :00:37. | |
Also coming up, playing for big "steaks." | :00:38. | :00:41. | |
China agrees to buy US beef as trade talks continue. | :00:42. | :00:47. | |
We start in Europe's economic powerhouse, | :00:48. | :00:51. | |
because in a couple of hours' time, Germany will release | :00:52. | :00:53. | |
Growth is expected to have accelerated in the first three | :00:54. | :00:57. | |
months of the year, fuelled by global demand for the country's | :00:58. | :01:00. | |
But it's not all cause for celebration. | :01:01. | :01:03. | |
Last year, Germany clocked up its biggest ever trade surplus. | :01:04. | :01:14. | |
That's how much more it exports than it imports. | :01:15. | :01:16. | |
At $275 billion Germany has one of the biggest trade surpluses | :01:17. | :01:19. | |
It's a source of tension with its neighbours and allies. | :01:20. | :01:24. | |
Look at how much more Germany sells to these top economies than it | :01:25. | :01:28. | |
The US in particular has accused Germany of exploiting an undervalued | :01:29. | :01:32. | |
euro to get an unfair trade advantage. | :01:33. | :01:33. | |
An over-reliance on exports isn't the only problem. | :01:34. | :01:36. | |
The European Commission says Germany just too frugal. | :01:37. | :01:38. | |
It is saving too much, and investing too little. | :01:39. | :01:40. | |
It wants to see some of that cash invested | :01:41. | :01:43. | |
in the region's struggling economies. | :01:44. | :01:44. | |
But many Germans think the spending should start closer to home, | :01:45. | :02:07. | |
Home time at this school in the south of Berlin where students have | :02:08. | :02:19. | |
more reason than most to want to get out of the building. We have | :02:20. | :02:23. | |
classrooms we have to paint ourselves and windows that don't | :02:24. | :02:27. | |
close and toilets that are so filthy students don't drink anything all | :02:28. | :02:31. | |
day so they don't have to use them. Also, the pay makes it difficult to | :02:32. | :02:37. | |
find the bull who want to do the job at all. Conditions are terrible and | :02:38. | :02:44. | |
schools are falling apart. It is not just public investment that is the | :02:45. | :02:50. | |
problem. Germany has a $300 billion current-account surplus. That is a | :02:51. | :02:57. | |
good figure, but it suggests that German companies preferred to invest | :02:58. | :03:00. | |
money abroad, perhaps because they see German schools like this, ageing | :03:01. | :03:06. | |
infrastructure, and a lack of investment. And it is becoming a | :03:07. | :03:12. | |
political problem. We see that, for example, in current discussions with | :03:13. | :03:18. | |
the Donald Trump administration, and with France, where Emmanuel Macron | :03:19. | :03:23. | |
has recently said Germany should try to bring down its current account, | :03:24. | :03:27. | |
we see that German policymakers are actually with there back against the | :03:28. | :03:34. | |
wall. -- their backs. They have to defend the economic strength Germany | :03:35. | :03:40. | |
is seeing. This is a problem because it creates tensions. Now, in just a | :03:41. | :03:47. | |
few months' time, German voters will get to choose their next parliament, | :03:48. | :03:52. | |
and as they do so, they may have one of the following questions. If the | :03:53. | :03:55. | |
German economy is growing so strongly, they ask, why are tax is | :03:56. | :04:02. | |
still higher, and why are my benefits still so low? -- taxes. | :04:03. | :04:09. | |
More simply, will I see an improvement in my quality of living? | :04:10. | :04:13. | |
Joe Miller, BBC News, Germany. And since US President Donald Trump | :04:14. | :04:16. | |
and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Florida last month, | :04:17. | :04:20. | |
the two countries have been in talks to try and reduce | :04:21. | :04:23. | |
tensions over trade. Well, it looks like those talks | :04:24. | :04:25. | |
are beginning to yield results. In the last hour or so, | :04:26. | :04:28. | |
we've heard there could soon be more access to China's markets for US | :04:29. | :04:32. | |
farmers and financial firms. Rico Hizon is watching developments | :04:33. | :04:34. | |
for us in our Singapore bureau. Tanya! Hi! He loves to jump in. What | :04:35. | :04:51. | |
is happening? Do you know what, this is a turnaround after all of the | :04:52. | :04:54. | |
negative rhetoric from President Trump on China before Xi Jinping's | :04:55. | :05:01. | |
visit. But from the looks of it, it is positive, with the US and China | :05:02. | :05:08. | |
expanding trade and beef and chicken. And they are increasing | :05:09. | :05:12. | |
access for firms. The plan is to reduce the massive trade deficit | :05:13. | :05:17. | |
with Beijing. The secretary said the deals are the first tangible results | :05:18. | :05:29. | |
of trade negotiation allowing US import of beef no later than July | :05:30. | :05:33. | |
16th, and Chinese cooked poultry will be allowed in the US markets. | :05:34. | :05:36. | |
And other services will begin a licensing process in a sector where | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
the union pay system in China has had a near monopoly. The secretary | :05:41. | :05:45. | |
said these deals will bring down the trade deficit between the two | :05:46. | :05:48. | |
economic superpowers and will have an impact on the Chinese surplus by | :05:49. | :05:56. | |
the end of the year. So, Tanya, on paper, the US has the upper hand. | :05:57. | :06:06. | |
Thank you very much, Rico Hizon, reporting from Singapore. | :06:07. | :06:07. | |
We are also looking at Iran, which holds its presidential | :06:08. | :06:10. | |
It will be closely watched by hundreds of companies worldwide | :06:11. | :06:13. | |
The current president, Hassan Rouhani, has opened up Iran | :06:14. | :06:18. | |
to foreign investment and has attracted some | :06:19. | :06:20. | |
But conservative challengers have said they would reverse his policy. | :06:21. | :06:26. | |
Later today the candidates hold the last in a series of presidential | :06:27. | :06:29. | |
debates, which will focus on business and the economy. | :06:30. | :06:32. | |
Two years ago, jubilation on the streets of Tehran. World powers | :06:33. | :06:48. | |
promised to lift sanctions on Iran after Hassan Rouhani promised to | :06:49. | :06:51. | |
scale back the nuclear programme. The economy, close to collapse, is | :06:52. | :06:58. | |
now growing at 7% a year. Hassan Rouhani says foreign trade and | :06:59. | :07:00. | |
investment are vital for future growth. Iran has struck trade in the | :07:01. | :07:12. | |
oil and gas sectors and ordered new aircraft from Airbus and Boeing. And | :07:13. | :07:20. | |
Peugeot are back making cars. But the main conservative challenger to | :07:21. | :07:22. | |
Hassan Rouhani says the rapprochement with the US is | :07:23. | :07:27. | |
failing. One in eight Iranians is unemployed. The wealth gap is | :07:28. | :07:32. | |
widening. He wants to give Iranian firms the lead in rebuilding the | :07:33. | :07:36. | |
economy, rather than dealing with the West, and wants more trade links | :07:37. | :07:40. | |
with countries like China and Russia. He also promises to create | :07:41. | :07:43. | |
millions of new jobs for young Iranians. But he has not yet said | :07:44. | :07:45. | |
how. Jeremy Howell, BBC News. Reza Shaybani is Chairman of | :07:46. | :07:50. | |
the British Photovoltaic Association which is working in the solar | :07:51. | :07:53. | |
energy business in Iran. Welcome to the programme. Thank you. | :07:54. | :08:03. | |
Are you concerned about the elections? Some of the markets could | :08:04. | :08:12. | |
be reversed. Not really. We see the acceleration of the growing economy | :08:13. | :08:16. | |
will carry on regardless of... Because the desire is there to make | :08:17. | :08:22. | |
it happen? Absolutely. Iran is a growing economy with a young and | :08:23. | :08:26. | |
dynamic highly educated population. It has the ability to grow further | :08:27. | :08:30. | |
in the region. So I don't see any problem with it. What has been your | :08:31. | :08:35. | |
experience during the time that Hassan Rouhani has been in power? | :08:36. | :08:39. | |
Before that, things were different. Things are different. Look no one | :08:40. | :08:44. | |
can fix the economy and everything else the Iranians have had to deal | :08:45. | :08:51. | |
with after ten years of sanctions. Hassan Rouhani took office that a | :08:52. | :08:54. | |
difficult time when Iran was isolated and the economy was in a | :08:55. | :09:00. | |
bad state. In a short period of time he has made significant progress. Is | :09:01. | :09:06. | |
the job done? No, it is half done. Even in this period, the Iranian | :09:07. | :09:10. | |
government has attracted over $3 billion in foreign investment. And | :09:11. | :09:17. | |
they managed to get over 40- $50 billion of Iranian assets which were | :09:18. | :09:22. | |
frozen. Tell us your experience of the country and what you do they. | :09:23. | :09:33. | |
Right. We invest in renewable energy in the solar sector. We did this | :09:34. | :09:38. | |
successfully in the UK. In Iran we are doing exactly the same. Iran has | :09:39. | :09:45. | |
lots of land and son and a growing economy in need of powers. -- | :09:46. | :09:53. | |
??MACRO1 solar energy needs a strong framework and access to finance. We | :09:54. | :09:57. | |
are like that in the UK we have all of these and what we are doing is | :09:58. | :10:01. | |
exporting expertise in these fields to Iran. Last year, during the visit | :10:02. | :10:07. | |
of the Iranian Energy Minister to London, we signed a framework | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
agreement to invest in one gigawatt of solar assets in Iran, are | :10:13. | :10:15. | |
proximally 1.5 billion dollars. Thank you very much. -- apprimately. | :10:16. | :10:23. | |
London-based virtual reality firm Improbable has raised $500 million | :10:24. | :10:26. | |
in one of the biggest ever investments in an early-stage | :10:27. | :10:29. | |
Japan's Softbank is backing the company, which builds | :10:30. | :10:32. | |
large-scale virtual worlds and simulations, in a funding | :10:33. | :10:34. | |
round that values the business at more than $1bn. | :10:35. | :10:36. | |
Improbable was founded just five years ago by Herman Narula | :10:37. | :10:39. | |
and Rob Whitehead, who had studied computer science together | :10:40. | :10:41. | |
Shares in Macy's have plunged after the US department store owner | :10:42. | :10:53. | |
Rivals, Kohls and JC Penney, were also down sharply amid fears | :10:54. | :10:59. | |
about the health of the traditional US retail sector. | :11:00. | :11:02. | |
The rise in on line shopping has seen US department stores shed more | :11:03. | :11:05. | |
than 32,000 jobs in the past year, according to US government | :11:06. | :11:08. | |
A quick look at what has been happening on the markets now. The | :11:09. | :11:24. | |
main thing is the stabilisation of the oil price. Looking at European | :11:25. | :11:30. | |
markets. The GDP figures for Germany will prove pretty influential this | :11:31. | :11:35. | |
week. No move on interest rates in the UK at the moment. Inflation | :11:36. | :11:42. | |
emerging from the UK on that. The US still affirming support for rate | :11:43. | :11:49. | |
hikes over there. Don't forget that you can get in touch with me and all | :11:50. | :11:53. | |
of the team on Twitter. Some of them don't like to make themselves too | :11:54. | :12:05. | |
available. I am Tanya Beckett with the BBC. | :12:06. | :12:07. | |
In the 19th century, public baths and washhouses | :12:08. | :12:10. |