all eyes on australia for news of interest rates — we'll tell you how us monetary policy is impacting discussions. it was a direct message on my personal instagram. but i of course knew straightaway it was some kind of scam, it had to be. but i wasn't sure which so i decided to play along. and the bbc gets a rare insight into what's being called pig butchering scams. hello and welcome to business today. i'm arunoday mukharji. in the coming hours, australia's central bank will begin its 2—day meeting. experts are hopeful of a rate cut some time this year but the rba is expected to keep rates as they are for now. last week, a number of central banks tweaked monetary policy. the bank of england delivered its first rate cut in four years, citing lower inflation.

the bank ofjapan hiked rates for the second time in 17 years due to consumer prices edging up. in the us — the federal reserve held steady but fed chairjerome powell hinted at a potential rate cut in september. peter mcguire is a financial analyst and told me what policymakers across the region are looking out for. mac many different facets they are going to look at. take on—board job numbers, inflation numbers, what is happening with housing and the view at the moment is to sit back. we understand what happened last week and probably 25 basis point cut is pretty much baked in by sometime by december so that seems to be the mood across i think the rba, the fabric of it.— across i think the rba, the fabric of it. �* . ., fabric of it. and we have heard a lot about _ fabric of it. and we have heard a lot about prices _ fabric of it. and we have heard a lot about prices of _ fabric of it. and we have heard a lot about prices of groceries | a lot about prices of groceries and supermarkets in australia. seems wages are not keeping up. what has it been like there on the ground?

a lot of hurt on main street, certainly everyone is feeling it as far as consumption for the credit card debt is pretty much maxed out on all of those impacts going across rent, fuels, services and everything else. there's a lot of hurt and people are looking for some sort of respite which in turn impacts naturally mortgage and the big cause of the month. looking towards the us and a potential race —— rate cut. is that what is happening in australia?— that what is happening in australia? ~ �* , australia? we're sitting back to see where _ australia? we're sitting back to see where it _ australia? we're sitting back to see where it rolls - australia? we're sitting back to see where it rolls in - australia? we're sitting backi to see where it rolls in terms of the fed and there are a lot of the fed and there are a lot of banks doing similar touch fix. they arejust of banks doing similar touch fix. they are just thinking, right, wejust going fix. they are just thinking, right, we just going to see a 50 basis point cut in september by the fed? is it going to be 25? where is it going to move and naturally you have an election three months today so all of those moving parts need to be considered from any central banker.— central banker. given in australia _ central banker. given in australia is _ central banker. given in australia is an - central banker. given in

australia is an export i central banker. given in - australia is an export country, how do you see it happening in australia with what is happening in china and japan? we growth than we would have liked and certainly china would have liked so that is an impact as far as exports and consumption that i think overall we just have to keep on motoring through and hopefully 25 is going to be a better year or more supportive year as far as our export driven economy so the likes of china and asia and pretty much japan. we spoke about china. china's government has issued guidelines to fuel household spending — something that is weighing on growth in the world's second largest economy. the plan targets sectors including child and elder care, as well as the food and beverage industry. last month, leaders including president xijinping promised to help boost domestic consumption and ease pressure on the country's ailing property sector. turning now to southeast asia, which could be poised to dethrone china when it comes to foreign direct investment. that's one of the key conclusions made by a report co—authored by bain and company which also pointed out

that economic growth in southeast asia is set to outpace china. charlie 0rmiston, one of the lead authors of the report and explains why south east asia is so attractive. we're excited because they are emerging from 30 years of relative stability but lower growth. the biggest catalyst is firms looking for alternatives to china. these are generally export oriented firms that are finding constraints fighting markets but also looking to diversify supply chain. that's the biggest source of optimism. we also see the different southeast asian countries competing for those investments. that's resulting in better outcomes for investments and consumers. even the diversity in the region, which is do you see this coming into? generally you're looking at the sectors where the supply chains are bifurcating more quickly. things like semiconductors, data centres, some of the more sensitive areas where solar

panels, electric field goals, batteries for them were also seeing areas where you can couple the development of the raw material with the processing of rock to pair two material. is there a region still as attractive as singapore is taken out of that could do a neck equation given a 60% of the regions in singapore? it is one of more startling statistics when you consider the region is 550 million people. they increase from 56% to 62%. we don't think they can sustain that but that wouldn't be the fault of singapore it will because the other markets have become more attractive for the industries are looking at a diverse set of targets they�* re excited about vietnam, putting more money into... seen the highest growth this year in malaysia, indonesia has managed to get its fair share of the investment and the philippines is up—and—coming. we see as investors assess the merits of each countries

they're diversifying quickly where they put the dollars. one of the misnomer as is people are looking for taxes, low labour and low man because, —— low land costs. if that were the case singapore would not be getting 62% labour. we been advising governments to focus more on the quality of the workforce, stability and policy and ensuring the infrastructure is built. warren buffett's berkshire hathaway sold nearly half of its gigantic apple stake earlier this year. it's a surprising move for the investor, who is famously focused on long term gains. according to the company's earnings, its holding in the iphone maker was valued at $84.2 billion at the end of the march tojune quarter. that would mean it offloaded a little more than 49% of its stake. we are keeping a close eye on markets here in asia which have just opened after the big sell—off in asia last week, especially in tech stocks investors are concerned about the health of the us economy after the jobs report last week and actually activity fuelling

fears of recession as well. we will keep a watch on that. here is a special report. scams seem to be everywhere nowadays. a bbc reporter has been given an insight into one type of financial scam — �*pig butchering' — where victims are romantically befriended on social media and then tricked into investing in fake crypto schemes. cyber correspondentjoe tidy was targeted on instagram and played along for more than two months to find out what psychological tricks the scammers employ. so that's how it all started. it was a direct message on my personal instagram, but i of course knew straightaway this was some sort of scam. it had to be, but i wasn't sure which. so i decided to play along.

i want to see if these pictures are of a real person. they're being used by lots of scammers on dating sites. and here is the real person — a german influencer. i'll warn her that her pictures are being used. this explains a lot. jessica hasjust sent me a screenshot of her cryptocurrency profits $47,000, and she's basically saying "you can be rich too". so, as suspected, and much to my wife's relief, this is indeed a pig butchering scam. jessica has now asked me to spend some money. i said i've only got £200. and what's interesting

isjessica has made me feel very poor. we've been doing this really complicated process of fake trading now well over an hour, and i can see my profits rising. but of course it's all fake. there's no way that people would go through this process if there wasn't that little hook of potential romance. this isn'tjust about the money. this is about something more romantic. in the flurry of instructions thatjessica sent me, she accidentally sent me one of her own instructions, which has chinese writing. also, if you look at one of her pictures from the very early days of her instagram account, that too has some items in a shopping trolley that are in chinese. i wonder where she is. what i do know is they're making a lot of money. sometimes these people involved in pig butchering, they are, in a sense, victims themselves. they're part of big call centres that are kind of lock you in and take your passport. so i want to know who is behind

the jessica account. we've had eight weeks of keeping up this pretence and now they've just dropped it. and now they're trying another way to get money. i don't really believe what they're saying is true. i think they're just trying to find a way to get me to pay them more money. before we go. here's something that might just drive you bananas — one of the biggest video games in the world right now is called " ba na na." it doesn't require much skill — all you have to do is click on a picture of a banana, which lead to a bunch of in—game rewards, like skins that you can sell for real money. it recently hit one million concurrent users in under 72 hours. and that's it for this edition of business today. thanks for watching.

hello and welcome to sportsday — i'm hugh ferris. our top stories: the world's fastest man, but onlyjust, noah lyles wins olympic gold in the 100 metres. 2a grand slam titles, but novak djokovic says winning olympic gold is his greatest achievement. and don't tell scottie scheffler golf shouldn't be in the games. he too sheds a tear as the gold medal is hung around his neck. hello again. noah lyles has won the olympic 100 metres title and he didn't lead a race in paris until the very last frame

of the final. the american has added olympic gold to his world title