04/08/2017 World Business Report

Now it's time for all the business news.

World Business Report - Ben is standing by.

Toyota may reveal a fall in profits as it slips from the world's number

one carmaker - to the world's number three.

One year on from the Games, how Rio's property boom

we start in Japan where car giant Toyota is set

to report its latest results in the next few hours.

For years Toyota was the world's top carmaker.

Its Corolla model is still the best selling car the world has ever seen

but recently Toyota has lost its crown Let's show you some

Toyota's expected to reveal a sharp fall

in profits for the three months to June.

Bloomberg News estimates it made just under $5 billion

that would be a drop of 15% on last year.

That's partly because of a big increase in research

Last year - despite Dieselgate - Volkswagen sold more cars -

And in the first half of this year they were both overtaken

by Renault-Nissan after it added Mitsubishi

So Toyota is spending big to attract new customers.

Last month it committed another $100 million

That is on top of the $1 billion it's already spending to develop

self-driving cars and other tech at a new research centre in the US.

Toyota's US boss Jim Lentz spoke to this programme at the time.

He told us it's all about winning over 20 and 30somethings -

There was a belief just a few years ago but Gen Y was not interested in

cars, they were interested in ridesharing and car sharing. If you

look at small luxury SUV is, a lot of that has been driven by Gen Y,

especially in the US, where they were saddled with large college

debts, they came out of college and had jobs but not necessarily

careers, they have now advanced beyond that and their desire to

purchase cars is now coming back. That was the boss of US Toyota.

Annamarie from BMR research joins me. We heard him talking about the

importance of capturing the new generation of car buyers. A lot of

the wisdom suggests that generation does not want to buy cars but now,

Jim's Bjorn that is maybe they do but it's got to be the right type of

car. Absolutely. A lot of it comes to do, attracting them. Part of the

reason companies were worried people didn't want to buy cars, especially

younger people, they had more interest in technology so maybe if

you can take cars down that route, you can win them over. In that

sense, although a lot of the analysts are expecting Toyota is

probably going to report a fall in profits, but that is down to them

spending more on research and developing the tax side of things,

it sounds like that is no bad thing. Absolutely, and if you look at the

sales side and the revenue, is expected to be better, volume

sellers are doing quite well. A lot of it is on expenditure. An electric

vehicles, going straight to hydrogen. Autonomy, AI, they are

looking into a lot of technologies. They seem to be in a bit of that

niche position with self driving cars. You think that was a

misjudgement? I think it was because there was a lot of support from the

Japanese covenant, so the carmakers got support to get into hydrogen and

it is very niche, as you say, there is a lot of infrastructure. It is a

cautionary tale. Toyota seemed to be ahead of the pack in terms of

developing tack. Everyone knows hybrids, they associated with the

Prius and suddenly, they find themselves overtaken. They are one

of the few companies that does not have a strategy for. They could have

something big country with the solid-state battery, that could be a

big development but in terms of actually having models to the

market, they are behind from else. We will watch very closely for those

results. A year ago - as host city

of the Olympic Games With Olympic fever came

a real estate boom. But with Brazil's economic problems

mounting, it's turned to bust, As views from the office window go,

it doesn't get much better than this. But for this office building,

despite lavish decorations, marble and art deco, not a single unit has

been sold or rented since it opened about a year ago. Predictions of a

post- Olympics boost to business have failed to come to fruition.

Leading up to last year 's Olympic Games, Rio de Janeiro had a real

estate boom with dozens of new commercial buildings like this one

cropping up but last year, after the Games were over, the city went into

a severe economic crisis and investors are now facing a new

reality. When we planned this building, rear's real estate market

was on a high. Today, we are in the low sales cycle which will change in

the coming years. So for now, we are offering lower prices, trying to get

tenants and waiting for better times. The crisis is national but

recession is biting hardest in Rio. More than 80% of new office space

remains an rented. The local government is virtually bankrupt.

Police officers, teachers and civil servants are not getting paid. This

area of downtown Rio received over $2 billion in investments. It was

supposed to be a new hub for tourists and businesses with a

lavish Museum of tomorrow. Last month, the company responsible for

cleaning and security abandoned its contract after months of not being

paid. It's a very good moment to invest because the prices are very

low so it's easy to find a good deal. If you want to bring up your

company, to set up a brand here in Rio de Janeiro, is a good moment but

the recovery will -- the recovery of -- the recovery will happen in the

long-term. It depends on the recovery of Brazil. Rio did have one

of the most expensive real estate markets in Brazil and now developers

are having to sit and wait patiently for prices to go up again or risk

selling at a loss. In Asia, more trouble for Uber. It

says it has taken action to fix cars after one of them caught fire.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Uber rented Vezel SUV 's.

Marika Oi, just bring is up-to-date. Then, it feels like another scandal

for Uber and when contacted by the BBC, it said as soon as we learned

other Honda Vezel catching fire, we took swift action to fix the problem

but we acknowledge we could have done more. Of course, the company

has been involved in quite a lot of scandals. The resignation of the

boss and founder getting a lot of attention. We still don't know who

is going to replace him. There are sexual harassment allegations. The

company is accused of stealing driverless technology from Google

and it does feel like it might have been expanding to rapidly into

Google markets like Singapore without doing all the due diligence.

Sterling has fallen sharply against the dollar and the euro

after the governor of the Bank of England warned that uncertainty

over Brexit is already weighing on the economy.

Mark Carney's comments came as the Bank voted to hold interest

rates at a record low and cut UK growth forecasts.

It edged this year's growth forecast down to 1.7% from its previous

It also cut its forecast for 2018 from 1.7% to 1.6%.

The Nikkei is lower - feeling a drag from the strong yen.

The dollar fell even more against the Japanese currency

after that report on the new moves in the investigation into alleged

Russian interference in the US election.

The weaker dollar against the yen makes Japan's

Some currency analysts are warning the dollar could fall yet further -

and they're not expecting US wages data out later to offer much relief.

While the dollar fell, there was a mixed picture for stocks

The Dow edged to a record high for the seventh straight day

Thursday - staying above the 22,000 mark -

although the tech-heavy Nasdaq retreated.