14/08/2017 World Business Report

moment of partition from India at the end of British colonial rule in

1947. Now it is time for World Business

Report with Ben Bland. Confounding the critics: Japan

beats expectations as it records its fastest rate of growth

in more than two years. 70 years of partition: We take

a look at how the economies of India and Pakistan have diverged

since the end of British rule. Hello and a very warm welcome to BBC

News of World Business Report. I am Ben Bland.

Japan has just released its latest set of growth figures,

and there's been some good news for the world's

Japan has exceeded all expectations by recording growth

The numbers are an encouraging development for the government

but don't solve the country's ongoing financial headaches.

Japan's productivity per person per hour stands at $23.45

that leaves it in 18th place in the world, well behind the US,

on $33.41, and a host of others including Canada,

The country's debt has also ballooned in recent years.

At more than 250% of GDP it has the largest debt to output ratio

in the world - by quite a comfortable margin.

Long term the country also faces what's been described

than 50 years almost 40% of the population could be aged

Hiroshi Ugai is the chief economist at JP Morgan.

Good to see you. I just wonder whether, with all this positive news

coming out of Japan, if it is enough to deal with some of the long-term

problems, or is it just a short-term thing? This was very strong, but

should continue for longer. It is higher than our expectations, and

high since the first quarter of 2015. This growth is above the

expected growth rate, suggesting that growth is expanding. However,

we think that is too strong for, you know, relative to our strengths, the

underlying strength of the economy. Do we take this to mean, then, that

Shinzo Abe's reforms, the policy of monetary easing, Abenomics, as it is

called, is that working? Yes. This time, the GDP's search related to

public works spending, reflecting the economic stimulus package

enacted last year. And also stimulus related to the monetary easing

environment. The consequences of this is considered us. For the time

being, the economic growth will, you know, expand, but probably in the

second half of this year, this second quarter, this will soften a

little bit. We expect this to slow to 1.5%, but still far above the

growth rate. So it works. Of course, this is good news, this growth,

which is exceeded expectations. However, I just wonder if you feel

enough is being done to tackle the longer term problems that I was

talking about. That demographic time bomb that I was talk about, with the

ageing population. Is it enough to tackle that? No. The current

situation is good, but during this period, we have two, Japan has two

tackle the structural issues to raise productivity growth in Japan.

Otherwise, our underlying growth rate is 0.7%, we guess. We need to

raise this more with structural reform to raise productivity, and

also to try to raise outcomes in a long-term perspective. Otherwise it

is limited for Japan to expand. Thank you for joining us Hiroshi

Ugai from Tokyo. 70 years ago, Britain

ended its rule over India and the country was divided

into two separate states. Partition brought about the largest

mass movement of people in history, but what has become of the economies

of Pakistan and India? Since partition, India and Pakistan

have charted different economic parts. India's economy was bigger

right from the start, because of the size of its population and the fact

that it inherited financial and government institutions. Today,

India's economy is almost eight times bigger than its neighbour's.

What is interesting is that in the first 50 years, both nations or

similar economic growth. In fact, the average income per person in

Pakistan was hired in India during this period. But since the start of

the 21st century, India's economy started to grow faster, widening the

gap. This is largely down to economic reforms in India in the

1990s, when it opened up its markets for foreign and private investments.

Today, India and Pakistan are the largest economies in South Asia.

They still don't create very much. Bilaterals trade stood at just $2.2

billion last year. This is less than what India creates with smaller

neighbours like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal. This is

largely due to the negative list, banning goods from India. This

ranges from toothbrushes and diapers to cars and cricket bats. India

levies taxes on goods from Pakistan. That said, informal trade between

the two countries is thriving, and is estimated to be close to $5

billion. That involves shipping goods through a third country.

Traders both in India and Pakistan news Dubai to get goods to each

other. Experts say that if history was formalised, then the total

bilateral trade between the two countries could touch $10 billion

every year. The New York Times is reporting that

Facebook has discreetly launched a photo-sharing app

for Chinese users. The social media platform

is banned in mainland China, but Facebook has made

clear its intentions to crack Let's cross over to our

Asia Business hub where we can speak What more do we know about this

latest move by Facebook? It is fascinating. It is called Colorful

Balloons, and the company's brand is not attached to it, the brand

Facebook. New York Times reported this, and Facebook has now confirmed

this to several media outlets. It says that its focus is to help

Chinese businesses expand outside China, using their platform. But as

you mention, Facebook has been very keen to enter the mainland market

since it was blocked in 2009. Its founder and chief executive Mark

Zuckerberg made a high profile visit with leaders, learning Mandarin and

making Keynote speeches that, as well. Facebook is not alone in train

to work around China's very tightly controlled Internet. Google,

YouTube, Instagram, a lot of silicon valley companies which have

previously banned have been trained to work around that. It seems like

Facebook might have found a way. Thank you for joining us, Marie

Curie. -- Mariko Oi. the chief executive

of Commonwealth Bank of Australia says he will retire

following a scandal relating Ian Narev has been head

of Australia's largest But recently, it's been embroiled

in civil charges stemming from alleged breaches of financing

rules that wiped out billions Narev is expected to step

down in June 2018. After weeks of public disagreement,

the UK's Finance Minister, Phillip Hammond, and the country's

Trade Secretary, Liam Fox, wrote a joint article

for the Sunday Telegraph, stating that Britain will need

a transition deal when it leaves The pair say that any deal would be

"time-limited" and should not be viewed as a "back door"

to staying in the EU. To forget you can reach me on

Twitter. I am