america's central bank is in the spotlight this week. investors watch to see if its hiking cycle will continue. and the philippine president prepares to lay down his priorities for the coming months, with the economy expected to take front stage. hi there, welcome to asia business report with me, mariko oi. it's a big week for global interest rates, with key central bank rate decisions in the us, europe and japan. the first, and most consequential, is the fed's decision on wednesday. us central bank officials have hinted of more rate hikes, but a sharper than expected drop in consumer inflation in the world's largest economy last month have dampened expectations. that decision comes a day before second quarter gdp figures are released. many expect the us economy likely remained in expansion during the april

tojune period. and rounding out the week will be the bank ofjapan. last month saw core consumer prices, excluding food, rise higher than the boj's inflation target. and this could put pressure on the central bank to tweak its ultra easy monetary policy. i spoke to naeem aslam, chief investment officer at london—based zaye capital markets, for more. i think the federal reserve is not under immense pressure, as they were, let's say, before they were, let's say, before the inflationary attack, as you rightly pointed out. because inflation is speaking at —— sitting at 3%, headline inflation. not too far from the target. especially when you compare where this number was, it is not too long ago we saw this number in double figures and now falling all the way to

3%. so where we sit and what we see in the market, from the money market, from the fixed income market, and equity market, we do see another interest rate hike, so going to wednesday the general expectations are, number one, the federal reserve will increase interest rates by 25 basis points and number two, the hawkish tilt will continue to remain in the federal reserve�*s monetary policy. what does that mean? that means perhaps another interest rate hike for the later part of this year, but we think that this is going to be the last interest rate hike by the federal reserve. well, interest rate decisions aren't the only things we're keeping our eye on this week. it's also earnings season. on tuesday, two tech giants competing to offer ai services will report their second quarter earnings. we are talking about microsoft and google parent alphabet.

the world's leading aircraft makers, boeing and airbus, are also due to report demand for new planes, as flight traffic rebounds following the lifting of some of the last covid travel restrictions this year. also on wednesday, facebook�*s parent company meta is due to unveil its latest report. of course, it recently launched threads, a platform very, very similar to twitter. we'll also assess the earnings of major energy firm shell and see how weaker oil prices over the last few months might have affected its business. and rounding up the week, we'll get the latest from samsung electronics. according to its preliminary report, the firm expects its 02 profits to slump 96% year on year, no thanks to a chip glut. and in other news this morning, twitter�*s iconic blue bird will soon be no more. the company's owner elon musk is changing it to an x logo. the rebranding of twitter comes

as mr musk recently admitted that advertising revenue remained at half of what it once was. if you remember, he bought twitter for $41; billion last october. over in the philippines, president ferdinand marcoer is set to deliver his state of the nation address later today. this will be his second such address, and the economy is expected to be a hot button issue as global headwinds intensify. i spoke tojesus felipe, who specialises in studying developing economies in the region. i think what the president is going to try to do is really get credit for the fermentation of his comprehensive dividend plan that was last year. the country doing relatively well. growth was high at 6% in 2022

and also growth rate very high in the quarter of 2023. the reality is also that employment in the country is up, unemployment is down, inflation increased during 22 in the early months of 2023, but it is down, and the demonstration surely would take credit for that. the administering also passed an investment fund, very, very controversial, but try to take credit for the economy and intimidation of the philippine defendant plan 23, and i think it is going to continue talking about it —— implementation of the philippine developing plan. talking about the benefits it will bring to the economy. deep, still relays on remittances from people working overseas, isn't it? in your view, how can the country receptor the economy to take advantage of its young population?— advantage of its young “oulation? . , ., , , population? that is absolutely correct. the _ population? that is absolutely correct. the development - population? that is absolutely i correct. the development model many economists, including

ourselves, we have been implementing. the reality is the country comes behind with perspective it's regional neighbours. that was manufacturing in the 19 90s,. as i mentioned, the marcos administration published an ambitious plan that puts the economic and social transmission of the country at the centre of this agenda for the centre of this agenda for the pitu this is achieving a growth of 6.5 to 8% for stub thatis growth of 6.5 to 8% for stub that is the forecast —— growth to get to... that is difficult, unless there is a clear understanding requires a relaxing of the strains to growth, in particular the balance of payments, the country needs to change the structure of production and move up in the developing latter. related to this is the focus on the transformation of the economy but as you are mentioning. there are two key things here for the one is

agriculture. a big employer in the country. over 10 million filipinos represented. tony 5% of total employment. second is the country needs to produce and export what we call more calm products. machinery, chemicals, electronics, pharmaceuticals, automobiles —— complicated products. therefore, in order to avoid balance of payments, current account deficits, it relies on policies following workers. the uk's economy may be struggling to gain momentum, but at least one sector is leaping into action. despite the impact of covid, the film and tv industry is seeing a frenzy of activity, thanks to the growth in streaming services. theo leggett has more. hey, y'all played a heck of a game out there. ted lasso, the feel—good football comedy, has been a hit

for the us streaming service apple tv+ — and this is where it was made. well, what do we have here? ok, so this is a small stage in our current studio. so it's about 5,900 square feet. at west london film studios, based near heathrow airport, business is booming. owner frank khalid says demand is so high, he's having to build a huge new facility. 16 metres in height, 1,250 square metres of space. let's face it — if you want to attract the biggest productions, you're going to need a lot of room, and that's what this place is all about. it's one of four brand—new stages being built here in west london, and the idea is to tap into growing demand for studio space across the uk, including from some of the world's biggest players. since 2015, the uk has offered generous tax breaks for film and high end television. that's raised demand for studio space as well as ready to use facilities, like this hospital set. it's a massive influence, the tax breaks here.

in fact, when i first bought the studios, there was no tax break at that time and a lot of film studios were closing down at the time. in fact, the studio that i bought was a closed down studio. but since the tax breaks have come along, the demand isjust going up by so much. dad told me you found something, on a train during the war. indiana jones and the dial of destiny is expected to be one of this year's biggest blockbusters, and much of it was filmed in the uk. spending on film and high end television in this country hit a record of more than £6.25 billion last year. but that creates new challenges for the industry. do we have enough people working in the industry in the uk to satisfy the need? we need accountants, gardeners, carpenters, electricians, as well as all the more well known jobs, and we need those jobs all across the uk. so we have calculated we probably need in the region of 20,000 jobs, in addition to what we currently have, by 2025. other steep concerns include

high inflation and competition from other countries, which also offer generous tax breaks. but people within the industry remain convinced that attracting more movies like this one certainly won't be mission impossible. theo leggett, bbc news. and speaking of movies, we are truly living in a barbie world. the movie has conquered the north american box offices in its debut weekend. it raked in $155 million, with legions of pink—clad moviegoers swarming theatres. this means that barbie has scored the biggest opening weekend of any film this year. it's also the biggest showing for a female director, greta gerwig. i have chosen the right colour, haven't i? that is a pretty programme. thank you so much for watching. bbc news — bringing you different stories from across the uk.

cows, controlled by the collars around their necks. so you can see we've got a solar panel on the back here, which charges the battery. they're nice and lightweight and flexible, so the cows have got plenty of room to move around. and then there's a gps locator on the top here, so we can see exactly where the cows are at any one time. and that links to the virtual fence, which is up behind us but wherever we want it to be, really. the collars mean the national trust can map out an area they want grazed on a mobile phone app. if a cow then approaches the invisible boundary, it first hears several music alerts, and if it doesn't turn back, instead trying to cross the virtual fence, the cow gets a mild electric shock. all this tech ensures the whole of this beautiful limestone landscape is kept grazed. they can be quite picky. they'll choose the best grass that they want to eat. and sometimes what we want is for them to get into the scrub,

some of the less delicious stuff, trample it down and create more sunlight for those species—rich small plants that live on the ground. so now we can force them to do that, using the virtual fences. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website.