these could be dangerous. floods and droughts climate change become the main driver of mass migration you can write any apocalyptic scenarios you want and probably most of them to come to. the clinic starts people thirty years on t w. china's economy grew ever so slightly faster than expected in the first three months of this year despite the company's pong going trade dispute with the us bought some of us say it's not a return to stable growth. but there are exceptions german premium benefactress of the most sort of particular have been able. to back the negative market trend in china. this is the death of your business. welcome the chinese economy grew at

a faster than expected rate during the first quarter of this year unless it was propped up by u.s. president donald trump backing down from a threat to escalate his trade war last month and government stimulus measures but some analysts say the worst may not be over. spring is in the air as china blossoms but that holds mainly true for the country's flowers and trees the chinese economy is stable but not blooming as brightly as in former years on the one hand there's the trade dispute with the u.s. that's taking a toll on exports and scared off investors and things could escalate rapidly if the two sides don't reach an agreement soon. on the domestic front the consumer boom is tailing off and there's less willingness to invest. beijing has responded with a who's to measures including generous tax cuts and labor cost reductions the government is also stepping in to prop up ailing state owned companies and it is

restricted capital exports to prevent a run on the country's currency the state intervention is aimed at bolstering the overall economy and it's had a positive effect the economy has gone back into positive growth but the washington based the brookings institution says china's real growth rate is actually two percentage points lower than the official rate that means the chinese economy is actually in much worse shape than it appears. that's been our correspondent from zero point one percent stronger growth than expected how significant is that yes the number is coming higher than many have thought from this number is show in that chinese economy is holding up better than some has predicted better bank lending increased infrastructure spending retells cells are holding up

all right so we know that some would say that china may not be able to stand its g.d.p. growth but the government with akio that they are not trying to set it but they are trying to smooth that down or transition from its high speed growth model to a more sustainable one so i think the message behind it it's what's more significant we've heard in the reports some institutes mistrust these figures how good are these figures. well many experts were say that while we cannot believe china as g.d.p. growth figures because china tend to inflate g.d.p. growth number let me give you one example last year when the government says that the g.d.p. growth number was more than six point five percent according to other cuckoo lation it was actually one point six seven or even negative but even so the number the

figure there is a comment after some upbeat ingredients including factory activities a new loans and trade which is given some cause for optimism so we might not be able to trust the g.d.p. figure totally but we can be sure that china is doing all right from january to march this year how is all this related to the ongoing trades which we in china and the u.s. well let's say if we believe the g.d.p. growth numbers six point four percent is correct it's still the weakest in the early thirty years for china and we know china is squeezed by the trade war with the united states and the impact of the trade war has to ceded china is the patient and now even though both sides want to reach a deal there are still many obstacles so if this trade war drags on it would definitely influence china and china as. it colony world the terrorists and it will

reflect on its g.d.p. growth number so from thank you very much. it was staying in china more than a quarter of all new passenger cars sold worldwide are sold there so the mood at the shanghai motor show could be better in the first quarter sales in china have fallen by fifteen percent to five point one million units and this year the car market will continue to go down german premium in the factories have been able to buck the negative trend so although shanghai comes at the right time for them to push sales with several world premiers. there's no sign of a sales crisis on shanghai streets german luxury brands like miss eighty's audi and b.m.w. are watching their sales climb and climb b.m.w. wants to boost revenues with a long wheelbase version of its mid-range car the high earning it middle class in

china wants much more leg room in the back because they like to be chauffeured. no the big parties not over this is the largest market in the world and ok yes we see a downturn the first three months of this year last year as well but different look at the german automaker they have gained market share and that is great. also building stretch versions of its european cars here with the q two the ingolstadt based company is covering three mega trends in the chinese car business longer all terrain and electric that's what successful chinese drivers want and the party isn't over for poor it's nine eleven cabrio is becoming a status symbol for the nouveau riche in beijing and shanghai this year push it wants to grow ten percent here for quarter china is a strong with market things a couple of years and the other important point is the new technologies they're

developing here in china are very interesting for porter there are a lot of ideas we can take a part of that well and chinese business is no longer a one way street chinese manufacturers like g.e. going on the offensive more and more often the group already owns volvo is a major shareholder in dime look and owns half of its small subsidiary smart shooting get us i think the g. least they can influence will increase a dime and it b.m.w. you have to see that b.m.w. is very strong with great wall the electric mini is produced in china in a joint venture with great wall they'll probably do even more there will have to see if these two companies will join forces the shanghai exhibition shows that the industry's on the cusp of a new era one that revolutionizes technologies and for just pretty jake alliances and china is increasingly setting the tone. well german top comic has

been a good mood then about g.d.p. worries in germany as well the german government is predicting today that gross domestic product will increase by just half a percent this year in january economy minister people expected to double that slowing trade briggs's u.s. president donald trump's trade tussle with europe and china has hit the euro zone's house particularly on the next year the government expects a recovery though to one point five percent of g.d.p. growth. let's bring in our financial correspondent lost in frankfurt loss how did markets react to these figures today well gareth you would think there's a huge reaction here with a forecast like that just cut in half but there isn't as a matter of fact markets cyprian pretty strong for the last couple of days and it

seems to be just fine with those numbers as well and there is obviously a reason for that and that is even though these numbers these numbers for the german economy are quite important they are out shined right now by the chinese numbers that came in stronger as we just heard earlier on the show as well and why are these so important because of course even for german companies as for most companies in the world the chinese market is of extreme importance it is the biggest growth market and china doing better than expected whether or not we can trust these numbers of course is a different matter as we've just discussed earlier but chinese the chinese economy doing better than expected of course is a big deal a much bigger deal than the forecast here for the national german economy. has been discussing a merger with rival comments by a few weeks now there's a new suitor in the game now the dutch bank i n g giving things more complicated

things getting more complicated. yes definitely this is getting a lot more complicated now because when we're talking about that a merger the potential merger i should say between a dutch of bank and commercial spunk we are not just talking about a bank merger we are talking about national interest because the german government is involved here strongly involved they own fifteen percent of america spunk and the german government wants a strong national lender as a back belt mon to the local economy here that is very important to them so they hatched out that plan emerging those two big banks to hopefully have a global giant again the global champion in the banking field and of course an offer from of the netherlands doesn't help at all especially when it's a sweet and offer i n g is trying to make this very attractive to the german government as well but promising to move headquarters try and from amsterdam to

frankfurt they also say they would let go of fewer people then people are expecting if there was a merger between dutch punk and commercial spunk so this is pretty interesting right now because after all spunk has to go for the better offer in the end and if that comes from i n g in the end and not from deutsche bank the german government and the bank say they find themselves a little bit in a pickle. other than in frankfurt thank you. cold call a bit multibillion dollar dispute over. qualcomm chips that apple's i phone used to connect to the internet the surprise truce ended a federal court trial just before it began with apple to pay an undisclosed amount of royalties on a six year licensing agreement for com stock closed trading twenty three percent

apple says two percent. recall three hundred sixty thousand vehicles in china effected cars have been fitted with defective made by a japanese supplier. two hundred seventy three thousand cars built by joint venture with chinese manufacture of brilliance automotive will be recalled another eighty seven thousand imported cars are also affected so far. for me and the business team here in the. thank you very much for watching.

what secrets line. behind these moments. find out in an immersive experience and explore fascinating world cultural heritage sites. d.w. world heritage three sixty getting up. to the new romex new channel. goldmine of stories.

with exclusive sites. the must see concerning parts culture to ensure a. place to be for curious minds. do it yourself networkers. so subscribe don't miss out. hello and welcome to our culture today as calls come from around the world to rebuild cathedral in paris after the terrible fire that raged on monday evening we will be devoting our news to the cultural significance of this gothic masterpiece down the ages. took over one hundred years to build finally being completed in the thirteenth century we'll be looking at the

historical significance of this building since then. victor hugo's famous book the hunchback of notre dam influenced its restoration in the nineteenth century and more recently the movies and a musical made of that story and how of course it has brought millions of tourists to visit this landmark in paris every year also we'll talk about the hopes for its restoration. for all this i'm joined by my colleague david levitz who's been following the story and the deed you visited not. many times well as have you robyn and vike like you and frankly hundreds of millions of people who probably have visited it today there is this this very mixed feeling on the one hand the sense of devastation at what has.