this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. another weekend of protests in france, even after president macron backed down on some of his policies. so what damage has been done to the french economy and what more do the protesters want? laura ashley looks east. the home furnishing brand cuts its uk presence to expand in china. and fianancial markets in asia are mixed, the big focus this week for investors around the world is the meeting of the us central bank on tuesday and wednesday, will it raise interest rates again? there have been fresh protests in france over the weekend, despite a series of costly concessions announced by president macron. around 66,000 people turned out

again across france for a fifth round of protests which originally sprung up overfuel tax hikes, before snowballing into broader opposition to president macron, his pro—business agenda and style of governmen, but that was half the number of the previous weekend. he's now cancelled tax rises on fuel, raised the minimum wage and offered tax cuts for low—income pensioners. the cost of the concessions is expected to blow an $11.38 billion hole in france's 2019 budget. and the french government has indicated that its public deficit, originally expected to be 2.8% percent of gdp next year, could now swell to as much as 3.4% due to the extra spending. that would be above the ceiling

of 3% of gdp set under eu rules, risking a confrontation with brussels. and it's not only government coffers which have been hit by the protests. a major survey of french private—sector business activity showed that output shrank in december for the first time in two and a half years. any figure below 50 indicates contraction. let's get more on this story. tomasz michalski, professor of international economics, hec intl business school, paris, joins me now. gives us your take on the fact that these protest two are continuing, these protest two are continuing, the number of people on the streets has reduced, but still protesters have not stopped, despite all of those new measures announced by the government. let me first tell you about what are the roots of the problem as we believe they are. we

we re problem as we believe they are. we were doing some research on this. 0ver were doing some research on this. over the last were doing some research on this. 0ver the last 25— were doing some research on this. over the last 25— 30 years there has been a growing divide between large and small cities and this has been going on not only in france, but also the entire western world. so, what happens? a sickly in the large cities, you have a lot of professionals, managers, engineers, who are doing well in the new globalised knowledge economy, whereas smaller cities and rural areas you actually have the creation ofa areas you actually have the creation of a lot of low skilled jobs and also, what ever is left of the middle paying jobs that were once good jobs, that took a big hit by automation and off shoring. by this divide that is really growing, you actually have a big income equality —— inequality across the peers spatially and this is the first source of this. the second thing to

understand is that these people from small and rural areas are actually trying to access the large city labour markets and the commute. whatever it increases their commuting time, whatever it increases its cost, is actually going to deprive them of their livelihoods and income. so, here we can understand what the group of the problem was and start of all these protests. first of all, the increase in fuel taxes increased commuting cost. earlier in the year there was a decrease in the speed limit on secondary roads from 90 to 80 kilometres. and there is a measure of speaker, there are is bringing this data and it gives a sense of a further injustice to those who believe they got the short end of the stick. is where the protest started. the question is, how does

this get resolved ? started. the question is, how does this get resolved? as you say, what you are describing is real, long—term problems that have been created for decades in france. we see in other countries in europe as well. had we overcome these changes? —— how do we overcome. well. had we overcome these changes? -- how do we overcome. first of all, we have to recognise what we cannot do. first of all, any kind of demand stimulus is not going to help. flexibility of the way the code, if you have such divergences, may not help either. what the government is proceeding with now is that we are going to try to change, for example, increase the outlays for the poorest of the society. so there is going to be some wealth transfer in the short run, but in the long—term of how to address this problem, first of all we had to fix the education system, we had to fix the education system, we need to increase the accessibility of large labour markets, for examples are improving

train and bus lanes, but also other structures. it won't be resolved any time soon. in the short run and we arejust go to time soon. in the short run and we are just go to have more wealth tra nsfers are just go to have more wealth transfers from the very rich to those who are left behind. we appreciate your time and it is really interesting to get your take on what is going on, the bigger picture in france and it is something we will discuss in more detail in our news briefing because we look at the french press and the coverage of these problems. fashion and home furnishings retailer laura ashley will close about a0 stores in the uk as it plans to expand its presence in china. let's go to our asia business hub where mariko 0i is following the story. tell us about laura ashley, because we know this brand extremely well in the uk but we may not understand its links to asia. indeed, sally. store

closure that you mentioned of 40, thatis closure that you mentioned of 40, that is in addition to 40 stores that is in addition to 40 stores that have already been shut since 2015. there will only be 120 stores over the country. the link to asia is that the retailer is owned by malaysia's nui group, which bought it 20 years ago after its failed expansion in the us sought its share price collapse in the late 90s. and the ui will have a new boss in the new year and he emphasises that it is expanding the remaining uk stores, but as you say, its focus is really shifting towards asia, they actually have a regional office in singapore which focuses solely on e—commerce into china with the company hopes to open physical stores as well. analysts say the firms e—commerce operations globally are not up to standard and critics say the brand has failed to stay releva nt. say the brand has failed to stay relevant. there are other criticisms as well that it has not been in favour of investors for quite

sometime. thank you very much. now let's brief you on some other business stories. thousands ofjobs at jaguar land rover are expected to be cut early next year as part of the company's £2.5 billion turnaround plan. weak demand from china, a crackdown on diesel cars and concerns over the impact of brexit have rattled the uk's largest carmaker. sales in the three months to september fell by 13%, with every major region — uk, us, china and europe showing a slowdown. workers on zero—hour contracts, agency employees or "gig economy" workers are to be better protected by a package of workplace reforms, the uk government says. under new legislation to be introduced today, staff would have to be told details of their rights from their first day in a job, including eligibility for paid and sick leave. workers would also be given the right to request more predictable hours. unions say the planned reforms do not go far enough. italy will trim its deficit target for next year in its latest

budget proposal, according to the ansa news agency. this is to avoid eu sanctions for violating budget rules. deputy prime minister matteo salvini said sunday night that "the budget was now within limits that should please the eu". let's look at markets once again. hong kong has come up a bit, when i last looked prior to coming on there, hong kong and shanghai were both down a little. you can look at that drop on the towel, that is friday, wall street will reopen later today but you can just see markets are up slightly, treading water. have got the federal reserve meeting which starts tomorrow and ends on wednesday. the chief giving a press c0 nfe re nce ends on wednesday. the chief giving a press conference and it is widely anticipated that they will increase interest rates at this meeting.

there is quite a lot of speculation about whatjerome there is quite a lot of speculation about what jerome powell there is quite a lot of speculation about whatjerome powell might be saying about the new year because it was expected that the us central bank would raise rates quite a few time in 2019, but since that was initially mooted by the fed, of course interchanged quite a lot and there is quite a lot of concern now about the outlook for the us economy going forward, especially in 2020 and the global economy in general, especially given the fact that the us, china trade talks seem to have borne in the wrong direction and 110w. borne in the wrong direction and now. i will have more on that in our news briefing, see you in a minute. from today, company directors whose firms plague people with unsolicited nuisance calls will be personally liable if their company breaks the law and can be fined up to half a million pounds.

new legislation comes into force which means the uk data protection watchdog, the information commissioner's office, can now hold company bosses directly responsible. previously some had liquidated their firms to avoid big penalties. joe miller has the details. have you been injured at work, or been involved in a car accident? these kinds of questions have come to being of many people ‘s lives. according to new research, three quarters of us get at least once a nuisance call per month, many of which are scams claiming to be from bt, hate you must and talk talk. after delays, the governing —— government is tackling this menace. up government is tackling this menace. up until now, only businesses could be fined for east calls and texts and many innovative penalties by declaring bankruptcy and opening under a different name. now they can

be held personally responsible to the tune of up to half £1 billion. last year, just a couple dozen companies were fined, but the data watchdog hopes that these new measures will lead to more conviction. points about nuisance marketing have fallen recently, but with almost 4 billion calls and text still being made each year, the government will hope the people behind them know they too are on the line. joe miller, bbc news. coming up at six o'clock on breakfast dan walker and steph mcgovern will have all the day's news, business and sport, including more on brexit and some special guests on bbc sports personality of the year. all that went on there late last night. all of that to come here at 6pm here on bbc one. —— six a.m.. this is the briefing from bbc news.

the latest headlines: theresa may warns another eu referendum would cause "irreparable damage" to british politics. north korea warns the us state department that new sanctions could derail de—nuclearisation, permanently. the brazilian faith healer who sparked a manhunt, after being accused of assaulting hundreds of women, has turned himself in. now it's time for a quick look at how some of the day's stories are being covered around the world: we begin with france and le figaro. it reflects on the weekend protests by the so—called ‘yellow vests'. president macron has announced some concessions but the paper says the problems that motivated the demonstrators in the first place are still around. to italy next where bloomberg is covering the story of the government's budget showdown with the european commission. prime minister conte's government claims to have found around 3 billion euro of funds to reduce the budget deficit. heading to the middle east next and the arab news, which is reporting latest developments in the yemen civil war.

a un—backed ceasefire has been agreed but is taking time to come into effect. the paper says tomorrow is the deadline for firing to actually cease. next to canada and the globe and mail newspaper which is looking at the ramifications of the country's problems with china. it says china has effectively kidnapped two canadian citizens in the country while canada considers an extradition request against an executive from huawei. and finally back to the uk and our own bbc sport website which covers the lifetime achievement award given to tennis player billiejean king for her contribution to equality in the game. with me is cornelia meyer, chief executive of mrl corporation, a business consultancy. you are an economist and you love to

talk economics. we have the best brea kfast. talk economics. we have the best breakfast. the yellow vest. it is true, your previous guest said the same thing. it was initially against fuel tax, minimal wage. same thing. it was initially against fuel tax, minimalwage. there are same thing. it was initially against fuel tax, minimal wage. there are a lot of people feeling disenfranchised because they work may be three jobs and they can't make ends meet and that ripples throughout europe.