pinche its economic growth slowed in twenty eight team to the weakest race in five years g.d.p. grew by one point five percent last year dropping from two point two percent in twenty seventeen china is germany's largest trade partner and the source of much of its auto industry's profits china's slowdown is just one of the foreign risks facing germany's export oriented economy that has the potential messy brigs it antigovernment protests in neighboring france and america's protectionist threats still to come on counting the cost venezuela's president raises the minimum wage by three hundred percent we'll tell you why the additional money though won't help people buy any more goods. but first fuel prices in zimbabwe have more than doubled sparking strikes and violent protests the government says it was the only way to make people buy less fuel as it struggles to tackle a currency crisis foreign exchange is now part to find in a country that scrapped its own currency

a decade ago that's led to long lines for fuel bread and medicine and has pushed up prices fall chatter g.m. reports. frustration over zimbabwe's worst economic crisis in a decade ignited rights and prompted a strike by unions protesters tried to shut down the capital harare and the southern city of bull away oh by erecting barricades and burning tires police responded by shooting live rounds trying to disperse rioters with water cannons and tear gas the uproar began when zimbabwe's president emerson and dog announced that fuel prices would more than double digits someone just wakes up and decides to increase the fuel price we have demanding that the price be reduced to its proper price the information minister tweeted clever people know what to do avoid fuel guzzlers cancel unnecessary trips and use bicycles do not protest in the streets you can lose a limb in skirmishes that unprecedented increase is seen by qana missed as

a way for the government to control an economy that is once again in danger of freefall not only is there a shortage of cash and fuel but eighty percent of the population is unemployed or not is good you know who has a career as a date anyone above eighteen years of age is staying at home without a job the government should do something because we've farted for them. lack of fuel barricaded roads and burning tires have prevented people from going to work and school protesters are demanding the government meet with opposition leaders to figure out how to end the economy's downward spiral others are resorting to looting for overpriced basic goods and drivers are queuing for hours to try to get fuel at petrol stations that have mostly run dry but i wonder that we can't say we are a country when we are paying five dollars for public transportation and spending more than five days in a fuel queue and when the president appears on t.v. not saying anything useful inflation rose to thirty one percent two months ago

that's the highest it's been since two thousand and eight when the international monetary fund report. it at more than five hundred billion percent the president at the time robert mugabe abandoned the currency his government adopting the dollar and the crisis wiped out people's savings and pensions ten years on president emerson man on dog was touring russia europe in asia hoping to lure investments into his mineral rich country and avert an economic disaster joining us now from london richard siegel richard is seen the emerging markets analyst with many life asset management good to have you with us once again richard why hasn't the government of zimbabwe been able to get a handle on the economy over the past ten years if we analyze conditions it's actually done much better than it had been doing before the currents reform stopped the hyperinflation the economy began to grow although not that much the government

changed a little more than a year ago it had a plan to put into action but it never did this and rather than finance its budget deficit by effectively cutting costs namely salaries it decided to raise taxes and that was the worst combination because it led to poverty and confidence and therefore further economic stagnation so it was the moment when i got was government is is not tackling this in a way that would satisfy economists like you the plant that they have put on paper to some extent well in some respects it is fairly comprehensive and it suggests that the reform elements will turn things around however the good parts it hasn't implemented and the bad parts it has it won't take that much fitter and things around but it needs the political will for that and it doesn't

have that yet why does it not have the political will reach it. it's difficult to say eaton understand that with the change of president towards the end of two thousand and seventeen there was a lot of optimism then some more skeptical they said they only change the person at the top but not the governing apparatus they then had elections last july they needed some breathing space they needed to put together a plan which they did around october they started having meetings with the i.m.f. and the i.m.f. gave a fairly positive response last month these things take time but the tendency is to delay and delay and procrastinate and just never get around to it but i think that those would be natural lethargy of the old party being in power still were there a new party and fresh blood i think that would be that incentive to move things forward under robert mugabe the economy was shattered by corruption the botched

land reforms the unemployment rate rose to unsustainable levels i mean isn't the progress being made in the will of that a the other any bright spots here. i think within the gloom we have to recognize that there is a lot of evidence of improvement the economy is after all growing again and before the currency reform it was declining by five to seven percent per year there is a lot of potential in mining and and agriculture in addition the telecoms company liquid telecom which is a home grown company is one of the most impressive t.m.t. companies across africa although there are many may shortages of fuel and especially hard currency we also have to recognize that this is not a necessarily a shortage of hard currency in the economy just hard currency in circulation

there is a lot of dollar hoarding work often is to return then those hard currency stocks would quickly flow back into the economy so i think it really just is a question of confidence and trust in the government to what extent is is foreign investment going to be a lifeline to zimbabwe president when a guy who has been on a charm offensive to a number of european countries trying to drum up foreign investments who put that money into a country like zimbabwe as with any crisis economies such as symbolically aside from having. economic policies which are stable and coherent and has the support of an independent arbiter such as the i.m.f. the main driver of growth will be generating employment and investment whether it's domestic whether it's money which has left the country which will return or whether it's foreign investors in order to do that you need to have

something to invest in which the country does but you also need to have stable policies and the expectations that they will be stable however the types of foreign trips that the president is making either to russia china or to davos aren't going to attract the type of longer term investment that the company needs it needs to focus on the types of investors that were active in the economy and the one nine hundred seventy s. and the nine hundred eighty s. the ones that have been sex excess will in other emerging markets as opposed to the types of investors which will. by into opportunities on a very selective basis and also very opportunistically seeing what they can do and get out of the situation for themselves and maybe the government as opposed to for the broader economy richard always good to talk to your cause of the cost many thanks indeed for being with us. over in latin america venezuela is offering

a grim reminder of what happened to zimbabwe in two thousand the days the international monetary fund estimates that its inflation rate will reach ten million percent in twenty nine team president nicolas maduro has increased the minimum wage by three hundred percent but hyperinflation is expected to swallow up any immediate benefits of a serious stories about reports now from caracas where public health services a crumbling. the hospital of the university of us was once one of the best not just in venezuela but in latin america but matters have dramatically in the recent years as institutions and people deal with the impact of the ongoing economic crisis. is eighty years old and fell in the subway she says she's barely getting any food. there is nothing here nothing look at what we are being fed it's cold and i don't want to eat it but what am i going to do also in the room there

are patients who have suffered heart attacks and strokes others being treated for gunshot wounds employees from the hospital allowed us to come here to this emergency room to see the situation on the ground they see that they need many things food for the patients but you can see here. last weekend electricity in the hospital went out for several hours at least two patients died during that time staff say the toll may be in fact higher so do you think it's on the think it's on scene caucus they said there were five in seven who died there are twelve bodies in the morgue and we are trying to find out when they died we have been telling the government. that the generators were broken for months and nobody heard us. venezuela's president. blamed the blackout on the opposition describing it as a terrorist act with infrastructure feeling empty shelves and shortages of even the most basic drugs president maduro announced his latest economic recovery plan he

told the country's constituent assembly that it was aimed at ending what he's described as an economic war kill sylar your many more. the national minimum wage is going to be in half a petro an eighteen thousand bolivars for the working class a three hundred percent increase he also pledged to distribute food supplies every fifteen days and said the country had now enough money to cultivate at least three million hectares of crops but many believe he's being unrealistic as an important it was no matter what you do two thousand and nineteen is going to be a year with brutal hyperinflation and the government's response is primitive because they are right of the potential costs of reducing public spending in hospitals and on the street it's the people of venezuela who are paying the price of an economic crisis which has left the country virtually bankrupt and unable to help those in desperate need construction will soon begin on china's biggest

investment project in sri lanka after chinese state owned company completed reclaiming two hundred sixty nine head of land from the sea the government says the one point four billion dollar port city will be a technological marvel but critics say that it's part of a crippling debt trap when a friend has reports from colombo. this better expensive lendrick claim from the season around colombo is where she lanka is building a port city that it hopes to become the financial hub of south asia china is helping pay for and build this new project its ambassador was on hand to check on progress. the colombo port city project is an important project of the one belt one road initiative in sri lanka which is one of the key countries along the maritime silk route it is also an important project to implement the consensus of china and sri lanka and is an important project for the benefit of lankan

society and its people for its part china will own a little less than half the land for ninety nine years yet the government is confident that the new development will help sri lanka's economic prospects we are going to be the center of change in the next. and be the catalyst in getting us. china's dominance in sri lanka cannot be ignored this its latest project sri lanka's largest single foreign direct investment a project to build a two hundred sixty nine ahead financial city on land reclaimed from the sea and now china is back again offering sri lanka more million dollar loans the government will likely use that money to pay some of its staggering debt which stands at around thirty billion dollars and chinese loans account for some of that foreign

debt this port in the southern region of humber was built with loans from china but the government couldn't make its payments and had to give up control of the facility to be using for ninety nine years china has been criticised for pulling sri lanka into what some have called a death trap but others see it differently any investor land china will go where it's needed. opportunities and you know if your long has been not as stellar as we would like in our whole work in our preparedness we may appear the price so as it builds this new port city near columbus again with chinese money analysts see issue lanka's government needs to do better to manage its debts and ensure that it keeps control of mega projects like these and that's our show for this week if you'd like to comment on anything that you've seen you can get in touch with me directly i'm at a finnegan on twitter please use the hash tag a.j.c.

to see when you do or you can drop us a line counting the cost of al-jazeera dot net is our e-mail address as always there's plenty more few online at al-jazeera dot com slash c t c that takes you straight to our page and there you'll find individual reports links even entire episodes for you to catch up on but that's it for this edition of counting the cost i'm adrian finnegan from the whole team here in doha thanks for being with us the news on al-jazeera is next. i didn't know that corruption has reached a level like nothing ever before in our country. rank outsider.

to president of the united states. the power was in the data we will moderate the american people with the truth and nothing else discovered. for winning the white house unfair game on al jazeera. and i so suicide car bomb in northern syria targets u.s. and kurdish forces. color from doha everyone i'm come all sons of maria and this is the world news from

al jazeera taliban fighters have killed at least forty three members of the afghan security forces in a suicide bomb and gun attack. i cannot support the only other way in which to take no deal off the table which is to revoke article fifteen theresa may present her plan b. on break the parliament but there's still no sign of any breakthrough. and open for business one of the older streets in baghdad debts a new lease on life. so in syria there has been an overnight attack on damascus by israeli forces who say they were targeting iranian weapons depots in the capital and then later on monday in the north the kurdish why p.g. said a suicide car bomb exploded near the entrance to the just as a u.s. patrol passed by there are lots of potential ramifications for all sides has more

israel has repeatedly struck targets inside syria for years but rarely admits doing so now it is confirming the attacks and providing information saying it's targeting the elite couldst force unit of the iranian revolutionary guards israel has lifted the veil and its message is that it has no intention of stopping the strikes. we have a permanent poles you to strike if you're a need entrenchment in syria and her whoever tries to hurt us israel operates in syria with russia's approval moscow turns a blind eye when the strikes don't weaken the syrian government and when the israeli military gives the russian military prior notice the russian defense ministry doesn't usually comment on the operations but this time they didn't just provide details about syrian army casualties but that syrian air defenses destroyed israeli missiles russia will send. some messages to israel. course it

will. continue providing. missile. there are reports that russia wants israel to stop targeting in and around the damascus airport it's a difficult balancing act for moscow it has a good relationship with israel but it wants commercial planes to start landing to end syria's isolation but the airport is also important to iran israeli officials have said civilian cargo planes are used to transfer weapons from to her and to iranian backed groups in syria including lebanon's hezbollah they also say iran's privately owned mahaan air is one of the carriers suspected of carrying war material to syria the airline has been under u.s. sanctions and now the german government has decided to prevent it from landing at german airports many of the strikes targeting damascus airport coincided with reports of iranian planes landing on sunday air flight was about to make its

approach before turning back according to israeli media the latest wave of attacks is the second in less than ten days and the third since the u.s. announced last month plans to withdraw american troops israel was concerned the u.s. pullout would strengthen iran which has vowed to stay in syria as long as required but israel too made a promise and that is to keep up the airstrikes until iran leaves. beirut plenty of reaction from around the region let's start with harry force in israel he is now at. it was just eight days since the last time the israeli prime minister was speaking very openly about an israeli strike inside syria that came last sunday two days after that airstrike a much more limited one it was also the same weekend that the outgoing military chief gary isengard was detailing in a much more comprehensive way exactly what israel had been doing over the last few years targeting urania interests inside syria really putting an end it seemed or at

least moving away from the policy of ambiguity which israel has been surrounding its activities for those years up until this point the reason for that change well there are two explanations being posited here mainly one of them being domestic politics elections coming up on april the ninth benjamin netanyahu under serious pressure over three separate corruption investigations a potential decision by the attorney general re indictment coming within weeks it's expected and so it suits his political profile certainly to appear strong and in charge of israel's security at this time also the it may well be that the military wants to message iran and indeed syria that it is willing to do more and escalate its activities over syria further and messaging this before it does so certainly there has been analysis that changing this policy does run the risk of iran and

syria potentially using that as a reason to be more open in their possible escalatory actions and that is certainly one risk that the israeli government the israeli military appears to deem worth taking at the moment and more now with the summer binge of aid in gaziantep near the turkish syrian border maybe you can bring us up to date with what happened monday afternoon a kurdish and u.s. forces targeted. yes kemal just to bring you up to speed as you mention that this was what is happening between israel iran and the syrian government in the capital damascus further north in areas which are controlled by kurdish fighters who are backed by the united states they came and retired by isis this is the second attack in five days where just on wednesday there was an attack in this city of mumbai where it was the deadliest attack on u.s. forces as these four americans were killed there in this attack it looks like there

was no loss of life but it is a reminder which the united states president is just a few weeks ago said that i.c. had been defeated and if this is a reminder that it clearly isn't now what we're hearing from american sources and turkish sources on the ground is that this is being seen by turkey as an attempt to derail the draw of u.s. forces from this border area if you remember the united states president wants to draw all of his troops on the ground and his government as law as well as others want him to make sure that it is a smooth transition with which u.s. forces leave this area would be under the control of turkish forces according to turkey and turkey wants to syria to be clear of kurdish fighters kurdish fighters who are partners with the united states but seen as terrorists by turkey and turkish president today making it clear to a local audience here in turkey that he and his country will be watching very closely to what happens to all the promises that have been made to them he does not

he does not want a repeat of what happened in northern iraq and he's been saying that his forces are ready are ready to carry out another operation east of the euphrates river along the syrian border. with an update from. thank you let's expand on what we discussed there with. a professor of international relations at least university is on skype from washington for us not that we could ever predict what president donald trump whatever do but is this now pointing towards maybe a bit of a rethink on the u.s. withdrawal from syria because they are being targeted and we're now seeing. physically the impact of u.s. troops leaving. well the problem with don't trump is that he never wants to admit that he meant she made a mistake so i suspect that he will still insist on withdrawal of american troops and convince himself that it's what those troops were doing could be done away for

american forces base in our region of cause is not possible given the fact that american troops in iraq also are used so. but it is definitely a great deal of pushback within the american democracy to with all the pentagon is definitely against suit most seen brett mcgurk used to be the main interlocutor and that coming out in the washington post and on television yes very and the talk shows are doing very strongly against a change in policy. and bent but every tool and trump seemed to have essentially struck a very nice friendship these last few days or so they have now spoken three times and the first time they didn't present talk without consulting his he's a ties it just gave up on the northern syria so we have

a great deal of policy confusion in washington it's not very clear. what's going to happen but there is not but one thing that will probably influence company who did suspect is that isis is not making essentially and marconi off come statement that he had been defeated in in syria so how the united states press and congressional leadership reacts and as they just a tad is going to be very important because of the accent don't they say look you long about it and i says if you eat country's going to be on the defensive we'll see and doesn't all of this just give them a putin and russia more room to move and we already know how powerful they are in syria but russia is the one shooting down israeli missiles rusher is the one having diplomatic talks with the syrian u.n. envoy. yes absolutely look the russians russians and ukrainians have now

on syria completely and the next basic question of assad's is not going anywhere so now it's a question of consolidating the zone. so yes i mean nationalists is the big winner of course one also has to worry which i mean if i was president putin our lawyer about where this is all going because he's expanding a great deal of treasure in syria at a time when he's economy is in. his popularity is down. i mean. due to his acting look it's got to see justice and calls are being entered to say look i defeated the americans insincere. bed we also know that. tom blanton they have very very very distant but could listen should. doesn't really worry about putting them putin success in syria and scamps things getting

out of the un of the middle east is the way to do you are still in the least under bucket pleasure talking to you as always thank you thank you in other news a taliban suicide bomb and gun attack in afghanistan has killed at least forty three security force personnel some reports say the total could be actually more than one hundred a humvee a truck packed with explosives was driven into a military training base and police training center this is in might in shah capital of what province after the explosion of the taliban fighters dressed in police uniforms then stormed the base. the british prime minister theresa may says she wants members of parliament to have more say on the u.k.'s withdrawal deal and its future relationship with the e.u. she is still presenting her so-called plan b. to parliament officially started coming up two hours ago this is after her original deal of course was rejected by a record margin by m.p.'s last week to resume a knowledge to m.p.'s have not been consulted in.