this is bbc news. we will have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour straight after this programme. hello, everybody. a very warm welcome to a special edition of talking business weekly with me, aaron heslehurst. let's go and take a look at what's on the show. this week, we're going to revisit some of our interviews that defined 2022. of course, a momentous year of disruption for the global economy. over the last 12 months, we've continued to feel the impact of covid, the russian invasion of ukraine, and suffered a cost of living crisis as energy prices have soared. i've spent the year speaking to some of the most influential chief executives, business leaders and policymakers on the planet. the head of the imf, the international monetary fund, told me herfears

for the planet's prosperity, and the us energy secretary explained what her country was doing to tackle soaring oil and gas prices. i also heard from the boss of plane—maker boeing about how the post—covid bounce was helping it put years of turbulence in the rear—view mirror. but it wasn't all doom and gloom because we also celebrated a year of huge growth for women's sport. wherever you arejoining me from around the world, once again, a big hello and a warm welcome to the show. you know, 2022 has been a year of huge disruption to the global economy, with many of us forced to rethink everything from what we eat to how we work and well, even how we heat our homes.

the world went into the year still very much feeling the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. restrictions, economies everywhere have found it impossible to return to life as it was before. a major reason why was russia's decision to invade ukraine on the 24th of february. as well as costing thousands of lives, it's disrupted food and energy supplies for millions of us. it was the next month, march, when rising food prices led the united nations food prices index to hit an all time high, with the prices of cereals, vegetable oils and sugar all rising sharply. that underlined the huge role both ukraine and russia play in feeding much of the world, and its food and energy prices, which have been the biggest contributor to inflation. you can see here how in the g7 group of advanced economies it reached a0 year highs, leading to a cost of living crisis. and when it comes to covid, on the 14th of september, the head of the world health organization, the who, said, and i quote,

"we can see the finish line," but added more needed to be done to save lives and minimize economic disruption. and on december the 14th, the world's biggest and most influential central bank, the us federal reserve, increase the cost of borrowing again to a range of 4.25% to 4.5%. remember, it wasjust above zero at the start of the year and many other central banks have followed suit. so with all of that in mind, and the pandemic still playing out, back in may, i asked the head of the international monetary fund, kristalina georgieva, if the war in ukraine was an obstacle just too far for the global economy. it is definitely a major factor for setback of the recovery. just to give you a sense as to how significant it is, we did downgrade our projections for growth for this

year, because of omicron, from 4.9% to 4.4%. and now, with the war hitting ukraine very severely, throughout the world, the downgrade is bigger. we went down to 3.6% for this year. and what is most significant is that in this round of downgrades, we actually are bringing our growth projections down for 143 countries. this is 86% of the world. and if you ask yourself, "who are the 14% that are lucky?" they tend to be oil exporting countries, food producing countries and countries that have no leftover from dealing with covid. but even for these countries, you would hear concern about uncertainty. we have rarely seen uncertainty so profound.

we know the work of the imf is all about prosperity, you know, making people's lives better. but, boy, kristalina, it feels like living standards are only going to fall this year in much of the world. i mean, what are the consequences of that? i mean, we've already seen civil unrest in sri lanka. could we see more of that elsewhere? oh, definitely, yes. remember 2019, the year before the pandemic, it was the year of unrest from chile to paris, across the world, we have seen it. what was the big driver? it was a sense of inequality growing and a sense

of exclusion and also decisions being taken. that may be good decisions, but they are not supported by people. people are not brought on board. and i think if we are to learn any lessons from 2019, it is to be much more humble about policy decisions and engage in multiple ways with people, because policies must be for people, not the paper we write them on. one thing that the war has highlighted is globalfood security. prices at record highs. kristalina, how does the world make up the shortfall lost from ukraine and russia as well to make sure everyone has enough to eat? there is plenty of food, but it is not distributed in a way that reaches everyone. so we advocate strong before three avenues of action. number one, trade needs to be retained open.

we should not have a situation in which countries hold on food more than they need and create all kinds of barriers for food to move from one place to another. two, we ought to focus more on agricultural productivity, not only because of the war, but because of climate change. part of the food problem is because of weather—related decrease in agricultural productivity. so, more resilient agriculture, it may not be a solver of the problem today, but it will be a solver of the problem tomorrow. and three, there has to be increase in agriculture, agricultural production in places where this is possible. it is not going to be enough to fully compensate for the loss, but it can compensate for some of the loss.

and i have heard some positive announcements, for example, from canada in this regard. that was the boss of the international monetary fund, kristalina georgieva. you know, increased divisions and tension, they have been a recurring theme in the global economy this year. so can those who have the most do more to help those with less? well, the united states, it's the world's biggest producer of both oil and gas. so as the west tries to wean itself off russian supplies so that president putin has less money to fund his invasion of ukraine, at the end of september, i asked the us energy secretary, jennifer granholm, if her country could do more to tackle the global energy crisis. well, right now we are exporting at record levels, except that we have one terminal, one liquefied natural gas terminal down. it's our biggest, it's in freeport, texas. when that comes back on, it'll increase our exports by an additional 20%. that should happen in november. and jennifer, you've led the way in getting the g7 group

of advanced economies to impose a price cap on russian oil and a similar plan for gas that's on the table. but let me ask you this: without there being global agreements, and i mean, you know, having the major users like india and china signing up to it, surely that means it'll have a very limited impact if president putin can still sell his oil and gas elsewhere. yeah, the whole point of this is to limit the amount of money that is going to russia, so that we don't continue collectively to finance his war in ukraine. so if we have a price cap among the willing and others who don't sign on, their leverage, i would say, is increased to reduce prices for themselves. so we think that this will have the impact of reducing price, the price that goes to russia, reducing his profit level and still allowing the oil to flow so that we don't see the spikes in prices that we saw at the very outset of the war.

jennifer, president putin has said, and i'm quoting, "we will not supply gas, oil, coal, heating oil, we will not supply anything to countries that impose price caps." would would such a reduction of supply to the global markets notjust make this whole crisis worse and continue pushing up prices? well, that's the question is for the countries that do not sign on to the price cap, the oil will continue to flow. and it does, as i say, give them leverage to reduce their own prices of purchase. so we think that this is a smart way to be able to keep prices down so that we don't have people hurting this winter. how do you stop things from falling into the hands of commodity traders?

this is something that we have all been looking at. how do we make sure this is a me this is not exploited by those who have real knowledge of how the system works, and so i know that our country as well as the eu and others who are looking at this are also pursuing strategies to prevent them from happening. the likes of china and india buying large amounts of russian oil, how do you stop countries like that from their money flowing back to the russian oil machine? they are going to do what they are going to do, they will continue to purchase oil from russia at a discount. if there is a price cap, that really limits the amount of money that russia is able to extract, then it will increase the leverage of china and of india or of anyone else that wants to buy russian oil. it gives them the ability

to say, look, there's a price cap over there, we will not pay more than they are paying. it empowers them to lower their prices as well, and therefore it limits the amount of money that putin is making, that then turns around to finance this work. and, jennifer, if we look at the profits of the five big western energy firms in the first half of this year, bp, shell, total, chevron and exxon, they tripled those profits compared to the same time last year to more than $95 billion. should those companies pay more tax given just how much financial difficulties families and businesses are in? i know that countries across the world are evaluating this. what we want to see is to have them lower the prices at the pump. we want to see the savings, in fact, oil has come down per barrel. we want to see a requisite amount of reduction at the pump so that citizens are not hurting. so all tools are on the table.

you know, a windfall profits tax i know has been considered by a number of countries, obviously the uk as well. we are evaluating, but what we want to see as an end result is prices at the pump diminished, so reduced, so that people are not hurting. that was the us energy secretary, jennifer granholm. you know, one industry that uses plenty of fuel is the aviation industry. it's also one that in 2022 was finally able to start steering itself away from the huge losses of the pandemic. it's a business that's crucial to keeping the global economy turning, moving goods and people all around the world. and vital to doing that is boeing. so, when i went to the farnborough international airshow injuly, i asked the us plane—makers�* big boss dave calhoun, just how important that show was to his company. this show is very important because for three years running here without a show, we don't get to talk about or display the things were the most proud of, our products, and the products

that are behind us and the products that we demonstrate for the flying public and for all of the show participants. it's been stunning to me the extent to which the demand for our products for the industry has picked up post—covid. i've always believed there would be a quick return. i never imagined it would be this quick. we originally predicted 23, 2a before we got back, but right now there is a line—up on demand. and the bigger issue for all of us is supply. as we know, the global economy facing some real testing times. in fact, the imf, the international monetary fund, downgrading its growth forecast. again, many concerns of recession, possibly a global one. but you're optimistic. i mean, yourforecasts are pretty optimistic. i'm looking at the numbers here. i mean, boeing says, you know, for the years ahead, the size of the global fleet is set to grow by 80% in the next 20 years. where does the confidence come from?

the resilience of demand of the flying public to travel. you know, as covid hit us all the new zoom tools and all the things that are supposed to take people away from flight. is the complete opposite. you know, as covid hit us all the new zoom tools and all the things that are supposed to take people away from flight, that hasn't happened. it's been the complete opposite. people want to travel. they want to connect with other places, other locations, other people. so we just believe in our industry. to the global economy and supply chain issues. they're real. they're as real as can be. we understand that. and they affect our industry to the extent that the supply constraints affect us, but not demand. you mentioned the 737 we call it dash 10, right? you're in a row, if you will, with regulators over certification. and correct me if i'm wrong,

because what you're asking for, you're asking for a waiver for new safety standards, which would require changes to the flight deck. so does that boil down to boeing wanting to avoid safety standards so there's not extra cost to train pilots? couldn't be anything further from the truth. 0k. could not. we are not in a row with our regulator. we are heads down, working hard to certify the dash ten. it's either safe or it isn't. and i'm confident, very confident that we'll get that certification safe. so for us, it's a very important product. our customers want it as evidenced by their desire and the orders they've placed for the aeroplane. so i am very confident in the aeroplane. i'm very confident in its safety, and the faa will have to be as well. and they'll do their work and they are doing their work and they're doing it constructively. and we're just going to continue to progress and progress. i simply want to progress

toward a safe introduction of the dash ten. but correct me if i'm wrong, you have said in the past, if you don't get the certification, then you'll just scrap it. yeah, i don't know. i...i'm not sure i want to draw a hard conclusion on that front, but thatjob is harder than the job to certify what is already a very high performing aeroplane that is safe. and why would i do that? the big boss of boeing, dave calhoun, speaking to me at the farnborough airshow. as well as rising prices, a worker shortage with jobs unfilled. as workers across the world is face a squeeze on living standards, we wondered if this is the best opportunity in decades to seek a pay rise. governments tried to stave that off, saying it would make inflation worse. but in the private sector, there was a fear that staff, well, they could simply move to another company. so injune, i spoke to the big boss, the chief executive, of the world's biggest employment agency,

the netherlands—based randstad, and i asked him what workers really wanted from their employers. i would say, aaron, workers are looking for, i would say, a happy or a pleasant work environment, and that consists of a number of things, that is their colleagues, that is the work they are doing, that is the values of the company and whether they are aligned with their own values. so, you know, sort of happiness in the workplace is really important. i would say that was something that has risen to the top is flexibility. flexibility in where you work, flexibility when you work and how you do your work. and the research that we have done at randstad really shows that not everybody is getting what they're looking for, but 70% to 80% is looking for the flexibility, but only 40% is getting it. so you can see there is a gap and that makes people go on the lookout for other things. and then last but not least, is always compensation. compensation is important. it needs to be market relevant, but it's not the number one. that's really interesting,

sander, that you left that pay, you left that to last, especially at a time of this, you know, cost of living crisis. yeah, but let's say, aaron, if you feel miserable at work, 10% higher pay will won't make you feel better. it may make you feel better for a few days, but not on the longer run. and sander, does soaring inflation, does that change the importance of pay and push it up the list of priorities? absolutely. workers will look at their pay cheque, especially the workers on the lower end of the scales, people who go from pay cheque to pay cheque. but we should never forget that the overall proposition that employers give to their employees is really important. and sander, i'm wondering, does the current conditions of this labour shortage and high inflation, does it make for something of a goldilocks period for staff, seeking more a period where conditions

conditions arejust right? well, people have options. and you've seen that, some people call it the great resignation. i call it the great rotation, meaning, after covid, people have sort of said, ok, well, i've been in my role for a while now. let's see what the options are. and the options are out there, in many of the western european markets, but also here in the united states, there are more vacancies than people unemployed, snd that includes the uk, of course. and that includes the uk, of course. there are global staff shortages all over the world. which industries is this the most? the industries that have been hardest hit are retail, the shops had to close, travel, leisure, hospitality, hotels had to close, there was no travel.

that is where you see the main shortages. now they have to ramp up. the war in ukraine is expected to see issues in economies. what will that mean forjobs around the world? well, i am slightly more optimistic. i don't think it will be a major recession, that it may be a slowdown and a reaction. time will tell. what that will mean is that that will ease the jobs market to a certain extent. the shortages in talent are here to sayjust because of the demographics. that was sander van't norden, the big boss of the employment giant randstad. well, we're going to end the show not on doom and gloom, because one group who certainly did well at work this year were the england women's football team. they won the european championships, but they weren't the only ones to benefit from the tournament. it gave a big boost to female sports across the world,

making it a more lucrative business, notjust for the players, but also for broadcasters and sponsors. so in august, i spoke to former olympic ice hockey gold medallist, angela ruggiero. she now runs the sports innovation lab that helps grow the business side of sport. so i asked herjust how influential the european championships were for women's sport. it was, ithink, a pivotal moment in the course of history. of history, to be honest. i remember the 1999 world cup, sold out crowd at rose bowl stadium, that put women's sports, women's soccer specifically, on the map, and i think the euros more recently have been able to, you know, recapitalise the conversation around the sport itself, women's sport and just the growth of the game in general. and angela, we've been using numbers from some international research that shows people, they're keen to see more and more women's sports, if only there was more to watch. so how do you go about getting better access?

one of the number one reasons is your point. there hasn't been enough supply. the demand is there, the demand, there's a lot of fans that are going online, they're downloading apps, they're following athletes directly, they can, they're trying to get their hands on any content they can, and a lot of that comes in the digital format. but what that's showing us is that there's a demand out there, and on the supply side of the market, when linear tv puts it on tv, the typical broadcast view, those same fans are going to tune in, and more so. so a lot of numbers being thrown out, in terms of ratings and the amount of people that watch the euros. but what we've been studying is all these digital interactions that, to us, show there's a massive, massive audience that's untapped, and wants to spend more time and more money on the women's side of the game. we know research from your company and others show how fans of women's sport might be

seriously good news, likely to buy into associated products and spend more time with them. what's behind those findings? so what we found in our research is that it's about the quality of the fan versus the quantity of the fan. most male sports are driving enormous eyeballs. again, think the euro men's side of the sport. everyone expects the ratings to be high, the number of tickets to be sold high. what we're seeing in our research is that, while the quantity isn't typically as high on the women's side, the quality is much deeper. so fans of women's sports, which include men and women, but if you follow women's sports, you're spending more money with the brands that sponsor your teams or your leagues. you're watching longer. you're literally spending more time consuming digital and linear content. you're watching longer, which is very valuable in today's age where the consumer may not have an attention span, they're watching longer

on the women's side of the equation. they're deeper, more loyal, more engaged fans. so if you're thinking about growth, going after the women's market is more valuable because again, these consumers are deeper, they're more engaged, they're going to spend more money. and that's big money if you can grow that fan base. olympic gold medallist and the big boss of the sports innovation lab, angela ruggiero, speaking to me back in august. well, that's it for this week. i hope you enjoyed this special edition of the show. of course, we're going to have more big name interviews from the business world throughout 2023. in the meantime, you can keep up with all the latest on the global economy on the bbc news website and the smartphone app. of course, you can also follow me on twitter. tweet me. i'll tweet you back. you can get me @bbcaaron. happy new year. i'll see you soon. bye— bye.

hello. tuesday is going to be a wet and windy day, right across the uk. we will have had some clear skies and even a touch of frost earlier on in the night across northern and eastern areas of the country, but the rain—bearing clouds and this weather system is racing in our direction, you can see that clear gap here, the clearer skies earlier on, and, really, over the next 2a to 48 hours, and beyond, we will see very mild air spreading all the way from the azores, from the subtropics in fact, so temperatures could reach the mid—teens in the south of the country. so here is the forecast, then. by 3am, rain across western areas, still clear for a time, with a touch of frost further east, but a big temperature contrast across the uk, and then watch how that weather front, or actually multiple weatherfronts, spread across the country through the morning, into the afternoon, temporarily some mountain snow there in scotland.

it's not going to be raining all the time, i think the rain will come and go. in fact, there could even be a little bit of brightness to the east of the pennines for a time, but it won't last for very long. temperatures widely into double figures across england, wales and northern ireland, a bit colder there, the other side of the weather front in northern scotland, and then more of the same through the course of tuesday evening and really quite blustery around coasts, 40, maybe even 50 miles an hour, and i think most of the rain will fall around south—western and western parts of scotland, perhaps central areas, as well, could be 50mm of rain here, perhaps some local disruption to transport. now, here's wednesday, we are still in the wake of that area of low pressure, a lot of isobars there, and wednesday really will be a very blustery day. here are the gusts in the morning, perhaps in excess of 50 miles an hour around some coastal areas, blustery inland, but, again, not raining all the time. on wednesday, we are forecasting sunshine and showers, but the showers will be moving swiftly on, because of that

strong wind. and look at the temperatures — 15 in london, my goodness, we are injanuary — ten degrees expected in glasgow. and then the rest of the week, just multiple weather systems barrel across the atlantic and head towards us, but it does look as though friday might actually bring some decent weather, sort of a gap in between the weather systems. but look how mild it is in the south, temperatures relatively mild in the north, as well. that's it from me. bye— bye.

welcome to bbc news, i'm anjana gadgil. our top stories: russia acknowledges 63 of its soldiers died in a ukrainian attack in donetsk. kyiv claims the actual number is in the hundreds. in santos, brazil, thousands are queueing to pay respects to footballing legend pele. this is the scene there live. the european union takes steps to remove parliamentary immunity from two meps implicated in an ongoing corruption scandal. feeling betrayed. prince harry says buckingham palace failed to defend him and meghan before they stepped down as working royals.