Business Matters

BBC World Service

4.4 (41)
BUSINESS
UPDATED SEMIWEEKLY

Global business and finance news and discussion from the BBC.

1 DAY AGO

Donald Trump nominates Scott Bessent to lead US Treasury

Donald Trump picks Scott Bessent as treasury secretary. Wall Street investor will seek to extend tax cuts from Trump's first term. We get the latest. COP29 proposes wealthier countries give $250bn per year by 2035 to developing nations to help tackle climate change. We find out more. The world's largest man-made reservoir, Lake Kariba, has been hit by drought. We hear about the consequences this could have in the economies of Zambia and Zimbabwe. Bitcoin has been on a streak of almost daily all-time highs since the US election. We find out why. Andrew Peach discusses these and more stories with guests on opposite sides of the world: Takara Small, technology correspondent for CBC in Toronto, and Peter Ryan, ABC's Senior Business correspondent in Sydney.

50 min
2 DAYS AGO

US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair to resign after Donald Trump is inaugurated

Andrew Peach discusses the announcement that Gary Gensler plans to step down as chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission when Donald Trump takes office as president on January 20. Gensler is known to be a sceptic of crypto currencies unlike the incoming President who received heavy backing from the crypto community during the election. Beijing offers help to Chinese exporters who are facing higher import tariffs in many of their key markets. The IG Metall trade union in Germany announces that it will urge workers at Volkswagen to go on strike from December. VW is threatening to shut some of its German factories for the first time in its history. And Swedish battery maker Northvolt has entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the USA.

49 min
3 DAYS AGO

Indian billionaire Guatam Adani charged in fraud case

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani faces US fraud charges for allegedly orchestrating a $250m bribery scheme to secure lucrative renewable energy contracts. US chipmaker, Nvidia, has reported record quarterly profits of $19bn - surpassing expectations. Plus, we gauge reactions as Australia proposes social media ban for under 16s. We want to hear your views. Contact us on WhatsApp or send a voice note to +44 330 678 3033.

50 min
4 DAYS AGO

Trump names billionaire fundraiser Lutnick as commerce secretary

Donald Trump has appointed Howard Lutnick, an investor and co-chair of his transition team, to head the US Commerce Department. Lutnick, the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, was a major fundraiser for Trump during his campaign. Also, could Google face a potential breakup and be forced to sell Chrome, the world’s most popular web browser? And satirical publication The Onion has acquired Infowars, the media outlet led by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, for an undisclosed amount following a court-ordered auction. We hear from Tim Keck, the founder of The Onion. We want to hear your views. Contact us on WhatsApp or send a voice note to +44 330 678 3033.

49 min
5 DAYS AGO

G20: Xi Calls for More International Governance and Cooperation on AI

At the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Chinese President Xi Jinping urges for more international governance and cooperation on artificial intelligence, warning that AI should not be a "game of rich countries and the wealthy. China celebrates the completion of the final phase of a major pipeline bringing natural gas from Russia to China, which marks a significant step in the countries' energy ties. And in a pioneering move, Denmark’s Green Tripartite Minister, Jeppe Bruus, explains why the country is introducing the world’s first tax on livestock emissions. Rahul Tandon is joined by Jennifer Pak in China and Peter Morici in the U.S.

49 min
NOV 16

Trump's Impact on the Eurozone and Sri Lanka's Economic Outlook

We analyse the potential economic challenges the Trump administration could bring to the Eurozone, with forecasts already downgraded by the European Commission. Carsten Brzeski, chief Eurozone economist at ING Bank, offers his analysis on what this could mean for the region's future. We also explore the race for the next U.S. Treasury Secretary and what it signals for future U.S. policy, with insights from Sylvan Lane, Business Editor at The Hill. Finally, we turn to Sri Lanka, where President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s decisive election victory raises hopes for sweeping economic reforms. Shanta Devarajan, a professor at Georgetown University and former World Bank senior official, provides a closer look at the challenges and opportunities facing the country.

49 min
NOV 15

Trump nominates ‘vaccine sceptic’ to lead health department

President elect Donald Trump Nominates Robert F Kennedy to lead US Health Department. Shares in vaccine companies fell on the news of the announcement Ben & Jerry’s have filed a case against their owner, Unilever. They accuse Unilever of trying to prevent the ice cream company from making public statements supporting Palestinian refugees. The President of Guyana has announced that every adult in the country will receive one- hundred- thousand ($100,000) Guyanese dollars -- or nearly five hundred US Dollars. We ask, why?

53 min
NOV 14

What should we expect from Musk's new role?

US President-elect Donald Trump has picked Elon Musk for a role in government cost-cutting, as part of his drive to "dismantle" bureaucracy. We speak to Trevor Traina, former United States Ambassador to Austria during Donald Trump's first presidency. Also, China is showing off its latest generation of stealth fighter jets and other military hardware at its Zhuhai Airshow. Why Germany is in the midst of a lot of political and economic trouble? Devina Gupta explains us how businesses copying in Indian capital city Delhi while facing high levels of air pollution. And the New York City council passed a bill that will prevent tenants from having to pay fees to brokers hired by landlords. You can contact us on WhatsApp or send us a voicenote: +44 330 678 3033. We would love to hear from you!

49 min

See All (196)

Amanda D. Lotz

Host

4.4

out of 5

41 Ratings

Informative, effective & fun summarization of daily business

11/12/2023

SAARKÉSH

Relentless pursuit of connecting all the geo-political, environmental & social dots impacting the present & future of economy, globally with entertaining expert observation & analysis. Perhaps at times it could improve by giving a more in-depth analysis of the economical impact by key technological trends such as Generative Automated Intelligence (GAI). In covering the entertaining show of Musk being interviewed by the UK PM for example, the decoding of ‘In the future, people won’t need to work due to AI’ should be heard as: In the near future, where GDP growth is solely driven by systems & machines to process, plan, produce & profit, billionaires and corporations will NOT have a need for human employees to exponentially grow their wealth! What would be the new definitions for productivity and labor that could leads us through the necessary evolution/revolution of the present economical models & metrics???
Please reconsider Devina Gupta

Jan 22

avm1406

I applaud BBC World Service’s attempt to diversify their broadcasting staff but Devina is just not up to the task. Her accent and extremely error prone English are unintelligible most of the time. It’s painful to hear her struggle to keep the conversation across interviewees and the two guest contributors interesting and on track. She would do better in a news reading segment which requires much less impromptu/ extemporaneous commentary and hosting. I don’t listen to the episodes hosted by her.
Another great BBC Show

11/30/2020

vlaada77

Glad to find another gem to keep me up to the minute on global issues. I could have done without the micro-aggression of the journalist covering the November 21 COVAX facility story. This is regarding his ending quip about what Tedros meant about multilateralizing the vaccine. He clearly meant the collective effort of access and distribution. Quips like that make me wonder if this is the underlying uneasiness of having an African in a position of authority. Just report the facts. This was my intro episode and could have been turned off but BBC has a great reputation and so will let it pass.
Fabulous Business Show

02/10/2023

Mallarie121

Well presented