Money Talks

Asia's economic recovery is stalling, with two of the continent's manufacturing giants reporting slowdowns in production. In Japan, factory output shrank 1% in December. That's the first dip in three months, as the global shortage in semiconductor chips continued to weigh on the nation's gadget and car makers. Meanwhile, in China the manufacturing sector grew less than expected in January, with the industry's purchasing managers index declining to 50-point-1 points.

For more Naeem Aslam joined us from London. He's chief market analyst at AvaTrade.

#AsiaEconomy #JapanFactoryOutput #ChinaManufacturing

US President Joe Biden marked his first year in office on Thursday and has spent much of that time tackling the many domestic issues that he says weren't addressed by the Trump administration. Chief among them now is runaway, record-setting inflation, which is already widening the gap between rich and poor households. The impact can readily be seen, with higher prices for everything from food to fuel.

To discuss on the challenges for the world's largest economy Joann Weiner joined us. She's a professor of applied economics at George Washington University.

#Biden'sFirstYear #USEconomy #USInflation

It's been more than two years since COVID-19 was first discovered, and infection rates are still rising to record levels in virtually every corner of the globe. And that's expected to further widen the gap between rich nations, which have an abundance of vaccines, and poor countries that are struggling to roll-out even their first dose.

Max Lawson joined the programme to discuss more. He's the head of Inequality Policy at Oxfam in London.

#PandemicRocevery #Covid19 #VaccineInjustice

Microsoft has announced it's buying embattled video game-maker, Activision Blizzard, for almost 70 billion dollars, a historic deal and the company's biggest acquisition. The deal would transform the Windows-maker into world's third largest gaming company by revenue, after Tencent and Sony.

Gaming industry analyst and economist, Serkan Toto joined us from Tokyo. He's the CEO of the industry consultancy, Kantan Games.

#Microsoft #ActivisionBlizzard #GamingIndustry

An Australian bio-tech start-up has developed new technology to fight the country's rapid deforestation. It thinks its army of air-seed drones can help plant millions of trees every year.

#Drone #Seed #Afforestation

- Netflix shares fall 20% on slowing subscriber growth

- South Korea to lend Egypt $1B for infrastructure development

- US home sales surge to 15-year high amid low interest rates

#Netflix #Egypt # USHomeSales

Netflix shares fell 20% in after-hours trading, after the company reported its fourth quarter earnings. The figures were not bad, but its outlook for 2022 has significantly worsened. Netflix added almost 8.3 million global subscribers in the fourth quarter. That's slightly more than expectations but less than the same period in 2020. For the first quarter of this year, it expects to add only 2.5 million, far fewer than last year when it reported almost 4 million.

Craig Erlam is a senior market analyst at OANDA in London. He has more on what's behind the streaming slowdown.

#Netflix #StreamingPlatforms #SubscriberNumbers

Turkiye's Central Bank has kept its policy rate, one week repo rate, unchanged at 14%, in line with expectations. The decision was announced after the first monetary policy meeting of the year. Looking ahead at the next 12 months, foreign banks expect the central bank to keep interest rates stable.

Adjunct Professor of Finance at Boğaziçi University, Taha Meli Arvas, joined us live from Istanbul.

#TurkiyeEconomy #InterestRate #TurkishLira

- Wall Street banks raised pay by 15% in 2021

- Thailand resumes quarantine-free visa for visitors

- Australia's jobless rate falls to 4.2% in December

#BanksWages #ThailandTravel #AustraliaUnemployment

China’s central bank cut its benchmark lending rates again on Thursday amid concerns about an economic slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy. The People’s Bank of China reduced the one-year loan prime rate by 10 basis points from 3.8% to 3.7%. In December, the PBOC had also cut the one-year loan prime rate for the first time since April 2020.

For more on the story, we were joined by Victoria Scholar. She is head of investments at Interactive Investor in London.

#ChinaInterestRate #PeoplesBankofChina #ChinaEconomy