the hours of this morning firing plumes of smoke and ash across sicily, there have been no reports of major damage or injuries. eruption is the 4th this month. is the world's most active volcano? got elphin, will have or well, he was at the top of the hour. rob, what has your business updated next? have a good day. ah, what makes agenda? who's in the gym? love batting thing away. i'm not going to like my own car. and everyone was holding every day, getting you ready to meet the german can join me. rachel, do it on the w. w to talk, show a strong opinions, clear positions, international perspective. every week we get to the point on

a current topic. controversial, committed to the point on d. w to the the german business confidence is storing the bites new data sharing the country's economy took a battering in the 1st quarter is overwhelming optimism that the worst of the corona virus pandemic is also coming up. the things also rosie for the kids can use migrant workers, will meet the family of one canyon worker who's left the country to seek higher wages abroad and sweden to approach. during the pandemic

avoiding locked down house that held its hospitality. second, we'll take a look to the data we business on robots to in berlin. welcome to the program. but you have an economy suffered worse than expected at the start of the year, but nevertheless, there are high levels of optimism among businesses. cdp fell by 1.8 percent between january and march compared with the previous quarter current of restrictions. so jim saving rather than spending during that period. however, the latest, mostly survey of the business mood here shows confidence is soaring on hopes of a quick recovery from the pandemic. a claim on fist is the president of the eco institute, which released that survey earlier. we asked him if it looked like the pandemic could really bottomed out. well, it looks like it filbert we still have restrictions, but if we look at the sectors most affected by the pound, i make hospitality,

travel, retail. we see that optimism is coming back. so companies that are clearly expecting that is going to be a good summer season that will be fewer restrictions, maybe no restrictions anymore, and that things will improve. it also suggests the worst is behind us. clement space for me, for institute that the pandemic is by no means the only challenge facing germany's economy. the manufacturing and construction factors have been suffering at the hands of global shortages of microchips and building materials. take a look. typically rain is a roofing contractors biggest foe, but now there are a bigger concerns. prices for building materials are soaring. the price of these beams, for example, has almost quadrupled since the beginning of the year. once it's been any, even if we could or would pay the price, we wouldn't get it in time because it's delivery takes about $4.00 weeks off. and

there are also shortages of other building materials. construction projects are being delayed, us companies are forced to slow down, and customers are now facing higher prices. tile advisors, we are unable to build because a simple product such as classic requested pipes, tarpaulins, and so on. our employees are working limited schedules despite for order books. the reasons for the shortage depend on the product, but there is a worldwide construction boom. manufacturers can keep up with demand. there's also less space on cargo ships. and we're having a knock on effect due to the corona virus pandemic. things that weren't produced a year ago and transported from asia to europe are now coming all at once. it's creating bottlenecks, like traffic jams, autobahn. the german economic institute says the bottlenecks could ease in the coming months, but for now the construction sector will continue to face a shortage of building materials. now,

as the story played out in every corner of the globe, people leaving their homes and families to work abroad. betas domestic 7 saw in the cast sector all construction according to you and estimates. 164000000 people headed to wealthier nations, a work in 2019. and these mike work has sent a lot of remittances of money home to their families, $554000000000.00 in 2019, according to the world bank. and most of this money was, and in the united states, united emerett and saudi arabia, workers sent it back to their families in india, china. and as we'll see, kenya. but it is not just families who rely on this income entire economies of some countries depend on it to again hi, lead is t t unhappy. the 3 year old is missing his mom. i for more than a year now,

his only contact with her husband by a video chat with somebody. that's because she's taken a job as a domestic worker and money in saudi arabia. and he says, like many kenyon, his mother's death runs sega, felt she had no other choice than to seek work abroad with sara work in the money that my daughter was making here in kenya just wasn't enough. she decided to go to saudi arabia for the sake of the family because of lockdown, and percy's in saudi arabia different hasn't sent much money home since june last year. her family struggling measures introduced to stop the spread of virus, have impacted economies around the world. remittances sent home by migrant workers have gone down in many countries. but economists, james, she clotty says the opposite is true for kenya. what's the pricing?

is that actually the remittance of wind up? by almost 10.7 percent. kenyon, picking up more money from outside than ever before. i think that, you know, pretty 1000000. $3000000000.00 us dollars in 2020. that's nearly half the value of kenya's annual exports. many kenyans working abroad are highly qualified jobs with a good salary. and they came to see progress in their home country, so they not only send money to their families, they're also actively investing in the canyon economy. we notice that the remittance is not guessed about food. that's polar canyons have opted to start investing in. but in that country, the money is flowing into many different sectors, ranging from tourism to agriculture. it's giving a much needed boost to the canyon economy that could improve the lives of many

people. certainly the sake of family is desperately hoping for change. i want to make for my my, that house i want to make my baby good leg. i want to say to make my mother happy. in the meantime, little her little continue to miss his mother. and no doubt she had many more tears before they finally re united. okay, to our correspondence in nairobi enjoyed her in berra. thanks for joining us. i mean, we had in there for the remittance remittances of actually gone up in kenya over the past year, despite going down in the majority of countries. so why is that? well rolled contrary to what the rest of subsaharan africa experienced, kenya as a remittances, went up 11 percent. and that's actually be to, to innovation in financial technologies that have provided different transfer

platforms for the all the 3000000 kenyans living abroad. and so we did see an increase in remittances, into the country, largely supported by mobile money trunk. and then one of the things back, it's not just going to families in kenya, so it's actually being actively invested in the canyon economy. it's not having a tangible effect in terms of economic growth rate. so if you look at the year 2020 kenya deed have about 3100000000 years dollars in remittances, from kenyan living abroad. and if you compare that to the flooring, direct investment, it actually be higher than before. indirect investment can you would receive in a year. and so, yes, it is having an impact, because right now we're seeing that the foreign exchange reserves in the country as well, are now being boosted by international remittances. but on the potential

flip side to countries like can you suffer from having so many people of working age you could be working with in kenya, leaving to go elsewhere. they read a great a fact on the kind of professionals that are left in the country because over 70000 occasions are said to leave the country every year. going to look for greener pastures. and these are in other african countries as well as countries outside of the continent, and that leaves more professionals leaving the continent. and so the brain drain has affected the progress of not just kenya, but many of the african countries where we have seen the same happening. and we also are seeing the effect, according to the african union. they are saying that these ease, affecting largely the possibilities of innovations as well as increasing the progress of the continent economically,

pry on joy during their nairobi. thanks. let's take a look at some of the other business stories that are making the headlines. south africa state water authority has raised over a $1000000000.00 a markets for the reserve to highland water project. money is needed to continue working the vast network of downs and tunnels designs to improve water supply and hydro electric power generation german prophecy groups for novia storage of own and have announced a 1900000000000 your a merger. the front stock exchange of rallied on use of the fusion, which will create a real estate giant. it comes after protested against the companies that protest against the companies which demonstrates that they have fueled a housing crisis in burden. and can get more on that story from our financial correspondent in frankfort. cannot this it is the 3rd time that germany's largest

landlord will novia try to take over the number 2 in the market storage of on. and this time, it's likely that the merger will happen because with the amount of $18000000000.00 euros for novia is willing to pay significantly more than the last times it paid for its competitor. in order to appease politicians who might be skeptical about the merger, because it will give the new companies such a dominant position. the company's promise to help the mayor of germany's capital berlin, to ease some of the pressure on berlin's market for affordable housing. so we'll, nova is willing to pay quite a price for this merger. no wonder that the price of a novia came significantly on the pressure this tuesday kind of business, frank, that, that now for much of the world, the key to fighting the spread of the corona viruses, a mixture of lock downs, my squaring and restrictions on movement. however, sweden opted for

a different approach. the country shown the shift downs, but many countries, and now emerging from but that hasn't saved is hotel industry from crisis. the 1st total strand is opened a gas, but you can these days located in the coastal town of soon fall. the swedish hotel recently declared bankruptcy knob and we saw a small relief last summer and we thought that now maybe it will turn around. but then the spread of infection increased and it does not help di sweden's hands off approach to the pandemic is helped to insulate businesses from deeper decline. but many including hotels have struggled to anyways, is the international travel shut down. and recurrent virus outbreaks made many swedes wary exports, fear the hotels bankruptcy is just the beginning. this is extremely critical. at the same time, it has been for 14 months now,

but that snowball is rolling on so to speak, and is becoming more and more critical with each passing day. at the 1st hotel strand employees are hopeful that vaccinations and the easing restrictions around the world will allow this historic hotel a fresh start that's all for me in the business. same in berlin. next time the the site against the corona virus pandemic. how has the rate of infection in developing? what does the latest research say information and contact the corona virus co, the 19 special next on d, w i. the corona season comes to an end, a bit of a lot. so i just tried to just to go circumstances and go kept coming,

leading us sterling for the last day of a memorable season. 60 minutes on dw, the news . there were growing calls for a waving of cove vaccine payton's to increase deliveries to developing countries. but it's speed up production of the jap. oh, the us things that will be you believes easing, export rules would speed up supplies if you can give the ip.