Business Today : BBCNEWS : June 20, 2024 1:30am-1:46am BST : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive (2024)

hello and welcome to business today. i'm arunoday mukharji. we've had a rare glimpse into the world's most reclusive state with russia's president vladimir putin visiting north korea for roughly 2a hours. during that time the two countries inked a mutual security pact, which mr putin described as a �*breakthrough�* deal. details of that pact though have not been made public. putin's visit comes at a time where russia is facing fresh sanctions aimed at cutting off its ability to fund the war in ukraine. the bbc�*s suranjana tewari takes a look at the impact that has had on the russian economy. russia has been facing economic challenges for several years now. ever since moscow annexed crimea from ukraine back in 2014. the country has been subject to sanctions when moscow launched a full—scale invasion of ukraine in february 2022, the west further

tighten the screws. since then, the us, uk, eu, along with countries including australia, canada and japan have imposed more than the 16,500 sanctions on russia. and just last week, the us and uk imposed a tough new raft of measures. their main target has been russia's money, freezing foreign currency reserves and bank deposits. they have also banned exports of technology for making weapons, banned flights and restricted wealthy business people linked with the kremlin. russia's oil industry has also been another major target. despite the export controls, russia seems to have continued to be able to fund its war machine in ukraine. the economy has largely withstood the shock and is expected to grow by about 1—2% this year according to the international monetary fund. that's partly because it is still selling oil to countries like india and china. and because moscow has been able to impart sanctioned goods

by buying them through countries like georgia, belarus and kazakhstan, there are reports that north korea is helping putin's war machine in some way. sanctions may not have made waging the war too costly foeradimir putin, but that has got a lot to do with keeping friends and allies like kimjong—un happy and on his side. i spoke with angela mancini from control risks, and asked her if putin got what he wanted from this visit to north korea. this visit is really about ukraine. russia needs weapons, it needs artillery shells and short—term range missiles that north korea has been providing and solidifying that is really important because that's really, really difficult to get. i think the challenge is what russia will then offer in return to north korea because there are limits to that. we're still waiting for details to come out for the intricacies of that deal. but president putin also says

he hopes to build a trade and payment system completely separate from the west. how does that work? is it realistic? it's not realistic. clearly there will be some trade that happens there. but unlike between russia and china where there is a lot of b2b and b2c type trade, between russia and north korea you won't see that. this will be state to state trade. you won't have a lot of russian consumers buying into north korea. you're not going to have trade between people and businesses. there is a limit there. currency is an issue as well. unlike what you see with the rouble russia. having said that, one thing that reallyjumps out, despite the sanctions, according to the international monetary fund, forecasting russia's economy to grow this year, higher than advanced economies. what do you think is driving that? a lot of issues going on. primarily, russia already has a lot of money and also the sanctions are very hard to enforce. so russia had 9% of its gdp tucked away, it has a surplus,

gdp surplus of 9%. it's a lot of money. it's called the russian oligarchs back to keep their capital in russia. it is $100 billion per year. so even before you get into our sanctions working, russia has a lot of cash to push forward with though were in ukraine. but sanctions are, you know, really to enforce. we do a lot of work on sanctions enforcement and there is getting around the sanctions, which is a big challenge that firms are doing, but the problem is the fact that a lot of the sanctions don't work. there are 17,000 sanctions out there and companies are indeed trying to comply. but there's very little enforcement. so it's very easy for russia to get around those. in other news —jp morgan is scrapping the cap on bonuses of its bankers based in the uk. this follows a similar move by rival bank goldman sachs, and could see their bankers earning up to 10 times their base salary. jp morgan defended the move saying in a statement that they have developed one of the most attractive and balanced pay structures in the industry.

the uk government scrapped the cap on bankers�* bonuses in october last year. sticking with the uk. the latest inflation print for may saw prices falling to the bank of england's target rate of 2% for the first time in nearly three years. the economy and the cost of living have been one of the key issues in the run up to the uk election, to be held on ajuly. inflation in britain hit a peak of 11.1% in october 2022, its highest level in more than a0 years. despite that, the bank of england is due keep the cost of borrowing steady at 5.25% at thursday's policy meeting. turning to th us — american businesses and consumers started the year hoping the federal reserve would start cutting interest rates this summer. but last week's strong jobs report and still—high inflation means america's central bank is likely to leave rates

unchanged, at a more than two—decade high. and that is proving painful for many families and potentially politically costly for president biden�*s re—election chances, as the bbc�*s north america correspondent michelle fleury reports. 0n the outskirts of philadelphia, stacy ellis tells me she has had it with rising prices. inflation has raised my stress level. i'm constantly trying to figure out ways to budget and prioritise and come up with more money, and it is just tough. a single mum working two jobs while going to school. she still can't make ends meet. i make too much to receive any sort of assistance from the state but i don't make enough to be able to survive. what is the most expensive thing? rent. transportation. groceries. those are the top three most expensive things.

i live by a budget, i budget, budget, budget. and i prioritise. prices are slowly beginning to come down. are you seeing that? no. i haven't seen it or felt it. i am looking for it, though. many americans are fed up with higher prices, the frustration is spilling over on social media. this is what $70 gets you at walmart. that's it. $70. i make over three times i the federal minimum wage and i cannot afford to live. in an election year, this spells trouble for the incumbent. prices are up around 20% sincejoe biden took office. i inherited an economy that's on the brink now it is the envy of the world. joe biden frequently touts the economy's strength, but it does not holding much sway, at least with voters like stacy and the pivotal state of pennsylvania, which could help decide the outcome of the election. joe biden, where are you? democrats, where are you?

iama i am a democrat and i'd love to vote for them, but the republicans are allowed a right now stop. a stark reminder ofjust how much americans hate inflation. turning to tech — amazon has announced it will be investing over $10 billion in to europe's largest economy — germany. this comes as demand for its cloud services continues to grow. german chancellor 0laf scholz welcomed the news, saying amazon's investment was proof that germany was still a good place to do business. mr scholz also added that this move would create over four thousand jobs this year alone. sticking with amazon. the national human rights commission in india has asked the government to look into allegations of labour law violations at an amazon warehouse near the capital new delhi. earlier this month indian media reported that amazon workers in manesar had complained of a lack of water and toilet breaks, as they were under pressure to achieve targets. in a statement, amazon said the safety and wellbeing

of its associates and employees was its top priority. there is unlikely to be immediate relief from heat waves in india. the premier weather forecasting agency has warned the monsoon has stalled and there is been 20% less rainfall injune than the long—term average. 0ur correspondence looks at the implications for the country's agriculture. this could be worried develop developer for the indian economy given its big reliance on culture and the absence of large—scale irrigation in the country. millions of farmers who are dependent on a normal monsoon to plant key crops like rice, cotton and sugarcane. indian farms have been suffering from scorching temperatures with red alert warnings issued for heatwaves in the northern parts of the country this week. so a below—average monsoon will be a

double whammy. earlier this month the indian central bank warned that an exceptionally hot summer and lower water levels in indian reservoirs might put further pressure on food inflation which has been continuously very high. a normal monsoon would be an important factor in determining which way food prices go. that's all we have for you business today on. thanks for watching and find more stories on the bbc news website. thanks for watching. goodbye.

hello and welcome to sportsday. i'm paul scott at the bbc sport centre. here's what's coming up. scotland keep their euro 2024 hopes alive after a 1—1 draw with switzerland.

germany are the first side in to the last 16 as the hosts see off hungary in stuttgart. and andy murray's participation at wimbledon is in doubt after he retires injured in his second round match at queens. hello and welcome along to the programme. let's start with football because if scotland are to reach the last 16 at euro 2024, they now need to beat hungary in their final group game — that's after a 1—1 draw with switzerland in cologne. jane dougall was watching. an army of pipers led the way, carrying the hopes of more than 20,000 scotland fans who walked en masse to the stadium in cologne.

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