hello. this is business live from bbc news with victoria fritz and sally bundock. spending promises — italy's populist coalition releases its first budget amid growing fears about the country's finances. live from london, that's our top story on thursday 27th september. italy's new government has made massive spending promises that could see it go head to head , with brussels. also in the programme, a sigh of relief in argentina after the imf agrees to speed up a $57 billion life—line for the country. japanese stocks led declines along with shares in hong kong and china after a muted start to the trading day in the aftermath of the fed's rate decision. also: to get a job you need

experience, but to get experience you need a job. well, one firm that's helping to break this cycle is offering virutal internships, meaning you can work anywhere around the world and get that vital experience but does it bring results. and whilst we are talking all things virtual, facebook‘s announced oculus quest, a new virtual reality headset it hopes will rejuvenate the vr industry. so are they trying too hard? are you excited by vr, or do you think those who have poured money into it will be paying a high price? let us knowjust use the hashtag #bbcbizlive. hello and welcome to business live. we start in italy. in a few hours‘ time, the government will release its budget for next year, the first since the anti—establishment five star movement and right—wing

the league formed a coalition government in june, with both parties making some expensive election promises. five star promised a "citizens‘ income" — essentially a basic income for the poor — of around 780 euros a month. on wednesday, economy minister giovanni tria appeared to back the policy. he also said people would be able to retire earlier to give the country a younger, more skilled workforce. the league promised tax cuts during their campaign. mr tria suggested these could also be on the way, starting with corporate taxes next year and extending to individuals in coming years. so how will all this be paid for? the big worry for global markets is italy's debt. relative to the size of the economy, it's the second highest in europe after greece, at 130% of gdp.

investors will be watching closely to see whether this budget will make that worse. specifically the budget deficit — the annual shortfall in the government's finances. the eu says it shouldn't be more than 3% of gdp. thank you, victoria. with me is federico santi, europe analyst at research firm eurasia group. give us your take on this budget. as we have mentioned, giovanni tria has a toughjob, we have mentioned, giovanni tria has a tough job, he we have mentioned, giovanni tria has a toughjob, he has to try we have mentioned, giovanni tria has a tough job, he has to try to deliver on those promises, but not break the budget in italy. yes, this is really an interesting case study, if you will. it is the first insta nce if you will. it is the first instance of an outright populist government coming to power in a european area country. italy has long been seen a weakling for the eurozone, but now both parties in the coalition have dropped their earlier demands are leading the euro, but what they did campaign on

is this change in public spending, and they are approaching a decision point. not only does it go against european rules, but more importantly i would argue the risk setting off an adverse reaction in financial markets, which italy with its still wea k markets, which italy with its still weak economy can hardly afford at the moment, so the stakes are high. the stakes are very high. we will listen to the economy minister very soon to see what he does say in the budget, but in the meantime, everybody is asking the question, how will they pay for whatever he promises later today? the short a nswer to promises later today? the short answer to that question is they can't. the programme has an estimated to cost upwards of 100 billion, which italy cannot afford, so they will have to scale down their initial pledges for fiscal stimulus a lot. but even a relatively small increase in the deficit which is what both parties are now pushing for would be enough

to trigger this reaction by financial markets, which in turn could undermine the weak italian economy. so that is the perspective from outside, but within italy there was a terrible problem with youth unemployment, many have been feeling the pain of posterity for many yea rs. the pain of posterity for many years. it is from the perspective of social welfare, is this good medicine for italy or not? even if they struggle to pay for it initially? i think it could be potentially if it is designed correctly, but the problem is how to do it that is sustainable from the standpoint of public finances, and the way they are doing it i think really risks backfiring. federico, we shall watch with interest, thank you for coming in sharing your expertise. thank you very much. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. the international monetary fund has agreed to provide a bigger, faster bailout to argentina than initially planned in an effort to restore market confidence in the country. the imf plans to boost

its 36—month financing package to $57.1 billion from $50 billion announced previously. the move comes as argentina faces a budget deficit and economic crisis. wall street giant goldman sachs is launching a savings account for uk customers offering 1.5% a year, the best rate on the market. they are calling it marcus by goldman sachs, after the bank's founder, marcus goldman. britain's civil aviation authority has called on ryanair to compensate passengers affected by staff strikes this week. the caa says ryanair is bound by eu law, which entitles travellers to a refund or new flight if their trip is cancelled — but the airline says it will reject any claims. ryanair has cancelled 150 of its 2,400 scheduled flights this friday — affecting some 211,000 customers. it's been a really busy week for new

york. the united nations general assembly has been under way there. 0n the sidelines of the united nations general assembly, president trump has reached an agreement with japan's prime minister shinzo abe. the aim was to informally open trade talks between the two nations. sarah toms is in singapore how have those talks been going so far? well, it may not seem much. they have just agreed to open talks, but this is still a big deal at the moment. prime minister shinzo abe for the past two years has been resisting pressure to start these talks, and that's because mr abe

wa nted talks, and that's because mr abe wanted to stick to the transpacific partnership, giving japanese industry is a bit more protection. you might remember that that trade deal was agreed by 12 nations until president trump pulled out and abandoned it. so right now, prime minister abe had little choice than to agree to these bilateral talks, because the country is heavily dependent on exports, and mr trump has been threatening japanese car manufacturers with a hefty 25% tariff duty, and this of course would be disastrous forjapan, as the us is its second largest trading partner, and cars are japan's biggest export. thank you very much, sarah. let's checkin thank you very much, sarah. let's check in with the markets and see what's going on. stocks in asia fell thursday as investors took in the likelihood of further federal reserve interest—rate increases stretching into next year. we will be talking about this in a few moments. let's see what's going on with the european markets. the

euro has been falling on this report that italy may postpone a meeting on its 2019 budget plan. let's talk about what was going on with the fed, because on wednesday they raise the cost of borrowing again, by a quarter of a percent. it has also predicted another interest rate rise this year, with three more to come in 2019. kim gittleson was at the fed and sent this markets don't like surprises, and today's meeting had none. well telegraphed rate increase did nothing to dent investor confidence, and even though the central bankers here say they plan to increase interest rates are notjust once more this year but well into 2019, that didn't dent investor confidence either. that is because economic conditions here arejust either. that is because economic conditions here are just right for raising interest rates. the us economy is growing at a healthy pace. wages are increasing, and inflation is in check. that isn't to

say that the storm clouds aren't on the horizon. although mr powell said he wasn't yet worried about the prospect that president donald trump's trade war could hurt economic growth here, he did issue a note of caution. trade generally supports productivity, higher incomes, and fair trade, fair supports productivity, higher incomes, and fairtrade, fairtrade under internationally accepted rules, can be a good thing. i think if this preps inadvertently, a ghost ora if this preps inadvertently, a ghost or a place where we have widespread tariffs that remain in place for a long time in a more protectionist world, that will be bad for the united states economy and american workers and families, and also of other economies. but for now, mr powell on the central bankers in the building behind me are in an enviable position. they stand far removed from a fractious political environment and emerging market turmoil, and they can focus just on one task, to make sure that interest rates here in the us are not too high, not too low, butjust right to

keep the us economy humming along. what a job, keeping the us economy humming along. joining us is russ mould, investment director, aj bell. your thoughts on the fed is yellow i think it was what we expected, and powell seems determined to try to normalise policy is much as he can. the rates are now 2.25%, and they are getting ready now for the next recession, mad as it sounds when the economy is so strong, but if you look at previous possessions, the fed cuts interest rates by five percentage points on average, so it is hard to do that if you are starting at 2.5. he will be trying to board as much in his locker as a camper when the next downturn starts. some are saying 2020? 0therwise owls are talking about in

income tax rate cut in —— interest rate cut in 2020, which is good for president trump because that is the election—year. the monetary policy committee members seem to be forecasting interest rate cuts for 2021, so they are getting ready, they are preparing for the future. speaking about the future, from one mogul to another, media mogul rupert murdoch, he has ended his association with satellite broadcasting after almost three decades. he is out of sky. he founded it in 1989, floated on the london stock exchange in 1994, it has been a phenomenal success story. it was initially losing £10 million a week and looked like it might have gone bust before the merger with bsp. now he has sold it to comcast. he has been trying to take over and get full control for years. he was going to end up with disney anyway, but i think it is the end an ear of in some ways. from disney's

perspective, they are now left with a 39% stake in cammack sky they could do anything with, they will get $15 billion for it, so they might as well. it has hurt, but maybe not as much. a cushion for the pain, $15 billion! that's money in the bank! still to come: changing the internship experience. 0ne company is helping people gain valuable experience virtually — so they can do the work without ever going to the office. i can't get away with that! you're with business live from bbc news. ten companies have agreed to publish their leave and pay policies in a bid to tackle gender inequality. juliet carp, chair of the employment lawyers association. why are the companies doing this? disclosing their policies? i suspect it is good pr, but the bigger issue

is probably the companies that don't disclose policies, and who only offer statutory benefits. this seems to be about the people who are joining new companies. this doesn't appear to be the people who are already working at a company, and for example find themselves pregnant. jo swinson is absolutely right, that if you don't know what policies say, it is very difficult for you to make informed decisions. but the people who really need to make those informed decisions are the people who are already at work and thinking about starting a family or making family related decisions. when you sayjo swinson, that is the mp who is pushing for change in parliament right now. she has been very predominant in this whole story. when do you think a majority of companies will come on—board? story. when do you think a majority of companies will come on-board? i'm not sure this is a question of companies coming on board. i suspect that publication the internet is not the best way for most companies to communicate information to their own staff, or at least that is the way they will see it. if the bill goes through parliament, and legislation

is passed, i'm sure that the companies who are affected were published, it is a relatively straightforward thing to do. but in practice, most companies do give information in that way. how will this be enforced ? information in that way. how will this be enforced? surely that is the big issue, making sure companies are not just seem to big issue, making sure companies are notjust seem to be doing the right thing, but they really are. that is right, if the aim is to give people this information, the information is on the internet, it makes it easier for enforcers to see that it is there, and the big issue here is that if you want to enforce, then relying on ordinary employees to raise the issue is a pretty blunt instrument. it is. juliet carp, thank you very much for coming in. 0fgem is ordering energy firms to change how they handle complaints. 11 of the uk's biggest suppliers

will prove the way they deal with customer complaints. if you want to read more information, you can see that on the bbc business page. your‘re watching business live, our top story: italy's new government is set to unveil a hotly—nticipated budget in a few hours — with many wondering where the money will come from to pay for costly election pledges. more and more companies are embracing flexible working conditions. according to a recent report, 63% of firms now have staff working from home and other locations. and this seems to be increasingly popular, with 38% of managers even seeing staff predominantly working from home in the next 10 years. following that trend, training from home is also on the rise, and one company boasts having trained interns from 120 different countries. virtual internship offers "virtual

work experience" to students and graduates around the world. edward holroyd pearce is co-founder, virtual internship partners. this is not someone with a virtual reality heads that at home edge and in bay are in the hallways of the united nations(!) —— imagining. in bay are in the hallways of the united nations(!) -- imagining. what this means is that they do not have too commute, rent a house in london, relocate, they can do it from their copy shop, there are walls of residence. how are you making money? a couple of phases to the business,

founded in april, the initial stage, the majority is brought by the student, the participant, and the second phase, at universities, universities will cover the cost of the course and build it into their degree programmes. for universities, they might wrap it into an undergraduate degree so it is an internship relevant to studies and the idea is, what the student gets from it is mentor ring, training and a good internship on their cv, that is what we are talking about? increasing numbers of students across the uk, enrolment numbers have gone up. -- mentoring. people wa nt have gone up. -- mentoring. people want real life work experience. have gone up. -- mentoring. people want real life work experiencem is not cheap, £700 per internship, for the student to somehow pay for but you are saying you hope universities will do that for them? sure, yes, absolutely. the average student hasn't got much money.

scrubbing together to pay for the degree. the joy of doing this virtually, remotely, we hope to bring costs right down, so at the moment, each student gets somewhere in the region of 20 hours of checking and coaching sessions from the team, to take them through the learning experience. in the future, we actually hope to do that digitally. the host company will fill ina digitally. the host company will fill in a survey, saying what they are happy about and what they are not happy about, the intern fills in the same survey, at the moment that is analysed by the team, we get a coaching call to see how they can improve themselves and in the future we might be able to do that without the need of costly measures. human interaction i would argue is hugely important in the experience part of

work experience, you cannot replicate experience if you are sitting in your underwear at home doing data entry, effectively for free. laughter we would never encourage an interview to be wearing only their pans, just in case their supervisor would like a quick skype session, but the reality, as you said at the beginning of the session, lots of companies are giving those remote working opportunities to staff, exciting opportunity to get people those skills at an earlier stage, there are some very specific remote communications skills that at the moment, you really only learn by doing, by being given the trust your manager gives you, we can really put those inside a curriculum and turn them into something a student can have with them. tricky for employers, if they see that somebody has done an internship, they will not know if it is a virtual internship where they have been at home or one where they have spent the months with an organisation, i

would imagine that if i was an employer, i know which one i would value more. we would encourage the student to highlight the virtual skills. i have done a two—month part—time internship with a finance company in america and i was able to do that from manchester, aberdeen, university halls of residence... saying something like that, being able to prove you have the skills. the additional part of what we provide is to allow for a progress report and that is an impartial third party thing, no matter what the host company does, or what the intern says, we have a track of how their school has improved. tell us what you think, if you want to get in touch, this is how. stay up—to—date with all the days

business news as it happens on the bbc life page. insight and analysis from the team of editors right around the grove. —— bbc business live page. —— allaround around the grove. —— bbc business live page. —— all around the globe. and you can find us on facebook. business live, on tv and online, what you need to know, when you need to know. in a moment we'll take a look through the business pages. bigger package for argentina from the imf, is it enough? for a country that has defaulted eight times on its debt in the last 200 years... there is always the possibility it is not, the president, orthodox western point of view, newjoint do the right things, the governor of the right things, the governor of the central bank has just resigned,

clearly not desperately happy about what has been done, on the face of it, yes, drought is what has tipped them over the edge in the short term, so some rain would help but long—term, massively outspending what it owns, needs to find some way to square that circle, just like italy. 0r, to square that circle, just like italy. or, the uk, one might say, or america, next year, that is correct. the heat is on. if strikes go against him, it will be very difficult. are you a fan of virtual reality? people might suggest that my grip on reality is somewhat tenuous at the best of times. our north america technology reporter has been to facebook‘s launch, they have a virtual reality week and they have a virtual reality week and they have launched 0culus quest, the latest attempt to make it popular, you can see him testing it out, we never asked viewers what they think about it. —— 0culus quest. lots of

companies have invested about it. few on the uk stock market as well. mark zuckerberg gave the target, 1 billion users within a couple of yea rs' billion users within a couple of years' time, 99% of that right now, he has done 1%, he has 99% ago, clearly it has not taken off as he expected, is the equipment the right price? this is merely $400. the previous one was only 200, but... the experience, is it the content? i know they have signed lots of content deals with sports and movies, maybe that is the step forward , movies, maybe that is the step forward, but as with a lot of technologies, the curve of adoption, the s—curve. technologies, the curve of adoption, the s-curve. kenneth says, my concern is related to eyesight, we already have too many of our

spending too much time on mobile screens, tablets, laptops, televisions, what will be our headsets do because they are so close to our eyes? going to your point about what these things are used for and maybe tapping into that is the key, the vr experience could be made available for historical contents be made available for historical co nte nts to, be made available for historical contents to, the historical sector might benefit from it, says belaji laksman. and ben says, so much potential for the quest to do something different and the technology will be cool enough that people will give it a go for shortfalls of —— that people will give it a go for sure. plenty more business news throughout the rest of the day. see you soon, goodbye. another chilly start of the day

across southern part, patchy mist and fog around but really, as that clears away, temperatures up to 24 celsius once again, warm day expected, by tomorrow, temperatures dropping down to 16 celsius. at the moment, we have this mild south—westerly air across the uk, this weather front across scotland and northern ireland bringing cloud and northern ireland bringing cloud and outbreaks of rain, and eventually bringing cooler air behind it as well. the rain peters out across scotland, northern ireland, summer showers with sunny spells, cloud moving into the far north of england, most of england and wales today, going to be sunning and wales today, going to be sunning and also pretty warm, orange down here, further north, fresherfeel, those temperatures down to 15 to 17 degrees. through tonight, line of cloud, as a result, mild night,

colder nights than thatjust gone, with temperatures here about three or4 with temperatures here about three or 4 degrees, going with temperatures here about three or4 degrees, going into with temperatures here about three or 4 degrees, going into friday, the area of cloud, the weather front, moving south, behind it, north—westerly wind, that is what is bringing in that chilly air, right across the uk on friday, very different feel to the day, chilly start for many, lots of sunshine, bit of cloud developing for scotland and northern ireland, if you showers in the far north of scotland, with the sunshine, feeling pleasant, temperatures taking a significant drop, 14 to 16 degrees, fresher and cooler feel. into the weekend, high—pressure dominating, breeze picking up across the far north of scotla nd picking up across the far north of scotland and a bit of cloud and rain affecting the northern isles but for most of us on saturday, it is going to be another dry day, with

temperatures once again 13 to 17 degrees, probably more like the average for the time of year. by sunday, more cloud around, some showers, rain affecting the far north and north—west, if you share was drifting south across central areas as well but bright spells, still drive for most of us on sunday, and once again, those temperatures ranging from 13 to 17 celsius. hello. it's thursday, it's 9 o'clock, i'm victoria derbyshire. welcome to the programme. a leading expert calls for the nhs to register everyone who has been fitted with mesh and publish complication rates. it comes after our programme revealed up to 170,000 patients in england could be affected by complications, including chronic pain and problems walking, after having hernia mesh repairs. i'm sat here now and i'm in pain. i feel like something is digging into

me, i'm being pulled, ifeel like what to collapse. you go from doing 24 hours of training a week to barely being able to walk the supermarket. i wouldst told mine would dissolve in the tissue would grow through it. the surgeon told you that? it is definitely still there.