Share Radio Breakfast

Internet giant Yahoo has revealed more than one billion user accounts may be affected by a hacking attack. This marks the biggest cyber hack to date, with the attack dating back to 2013. It’s separate from a data loss in 2014 when 500 million accounts were accessed. The news comes at a critical juncture for Yahoo, who is trying to sell its core businesses to the telecoms and media company Verizon. Matt Cox spoke to Peter Church, Counsel specialising in data privacy at law firm Linklaters, to find out the consequences.

Scotland's Finance Secretary Derek Mackay has pledged a funding increase of £240m for local services as he set out his draft budget. Mr Mackay also confirmed he will not change income tax rates or bands. Those were two of the headlines from the Scottish Budget, and to bring us up to date with this, Share Radio’s Scotland Correspondent Maurice Smith joined Nigel Cassidy and Sara Sjölin.

Analysis by HSBC has revealed that global trade in services has outstripped growth in goods trade since the global financial crisis. The US, UK, China, Germany and France were the world's top exporters of services in 2015, but emerging economies will gradually gain market share as they continue to develop their workforce skills and digital infrastructure. Dan Howlett, HSBC Head of Corporate Banking UK, joined Share Radio to talk on the report.

In the lead-up to the Bank of England's decision, where it is expected to keep interest rates steady at 0.25%, a number of European central banks, including those of Norway and Switzerland, are due to deliver policy decisions. It follows the Federal Reserve, which yesterday lifted interest rates by 25 bps and flagged a faster pace of policy tightening in 2017 than previously forecast. Howard Archer, Chief European & UK Economist at IHS, joined us to discuss this Super Thursday expectations.

John Hardy, Head of FX Strategy at Saxo Bank, joined Share Radio to talk on the latest currency market news.

The US Federal Reserve has raised interest rates for the first time in the year and the second time in a decade. The US Central Bank has also predicted a further three hikes for the upcoming year. Professor Peter Rupert, Department of Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Former Senior Economic Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank, joined Share Radio to discuss the announcement.

A new report by the National Infrastructure Commission claimed that the rollout of 4G networks wasn't sufficient, with the UK only ranking 54th in terms of network coverage putting us behind Peru, Colombia, and Romania, among others. The report said that the UK's future 5G mobile network must be handled better than 4G. Share Radio's Matt Cox has been finding out more from Dave Millett, Founder and MD of telecoms broker Equinox.

A new EU Banking proposal, Article 21b, which requires non-EU banks to set up holding companies for their EU operations hasn't gone down too well, especially with US banking institutions. But as arguments on the new proposal have yet to spill over into the public eye, Share Radio's Matt Cox spoke to Francesco Guerrera, Associate Editor and Chief Financial Correspondent at POLITICO, to see what all the quiet complaints were about.

Dan Hodges, Political commentator at the Mail on Sunday, joined Share Radio Breakfast to give his weekly politics round-up. He looked over the situation in Syria and gave his take on the ASLEF and RMT union strike affecting Southern rail services. Finally, we discussed the latest that the News industry is worth £5.3 billion to the economy.

The Taiwanese government had the diplomatic spotlights turned on it when Donald Trump accepted a phone call from Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen upon his ascension to President-Elect of the US - the first conversation between the two nations at this level in decades. But others were less pleased - namely the Chinese Government. Alongside other anti-China sentiments expressed by Trump, this conversation with President Ing-wen marks a new faux-pas. Share Radio's Matt Cox spoke to Dr Steve Tsang, Director of the SOAS China Institute, and expert in governance, foreign, and security policies of China and Taiwan.