since it's once promise, we'll ask why the big bounce back could be delay this year, 2 with energy shortages, threatening many businesses, or hear from some of them. and also on the show, find out how a group of entrepreneurs plans to attend the french island of reunion into a global tack up. this is data we business on robots in berlin. welcome to the program and economy struggling to bounce back figures from germany's statistics agency. so gross domestic product grew by 2.7 percent last year as a welcome returned growth after the economy shrank by almost 5 percent in 2020. but 2021 was still far from the boom year that had at one point been hoped for germany economy struggle to recover in the face of the prolonged and amec. and it's not on effects with g d p. most likely, shrinking during the last quarter of the year. on other side effects, which is carrying over into 2022 is germany's energy crunch. soaring gas prices and

dwindling supplies are taking a major toll on the countries manufacturers. special steel force saw blades. it's been slowly heated up to 700 degrees celsius. freshly produced paper, dried by huge infrared heaters, steel, and paper. they have one thing in common. that production is extremely energy intensive. a problem at a time of sharply rising prices for electricity and gas to who are in a good place to build that higher energy costs have such an impact on our overall production costs. that soon we might no longer be able to offer competitive prices looked at maybe, perhaps weeks in nearby paper. mill cobbled paper is similarly under pressure. currently, the company faces energy costs as much as 10 times as high as the competition abroad. the higher cost is being passed on to customers who so far have been

willing to pay up. similar hernandez, i'm not even, we don't have an option. it's just the way it is. unlike our competition in france or scandinavia, we can't rely on industry exemptions that would lower our energy prices form to why they roosting privacy. for now, the company's trying to conserve energy wherever possible, keeping a close eye on volatile markets. some machines are being turned off when prices rise to high. still, high energy costs are threatening investment in new technologies, including a switch to renewables. cobbled paper was planning on using geothermal heat going forward. we are more than taking your to me and they have, you know, we've been working on research on geothermal energy, but that project is going to be shelved soon. like we'll have to make a decision. also we're working on a large lot recovery ventilation system. but for all that we currently lack money and liquidity. peters go to liquidity. the government will have to step in high

knob, wouldn't burge hopes that companies might be exempt from certain taxes? if not, he fears that some might shut down yet our vice does. her every one knows that germany had a thriving textile industry in the 1950s until the business moved almost entirely to asia because production here was cost prohibitive. a bar i would really like to annoyed at such a fate for our industry duties the again, but i can't rule it out. our benoit denise did a lot of these us out to please the german economy ministry has said it won't abandon businesses facing higher energy cost and that it will be watching. but, but it's hurts and cobbled paper need more than that. well, let's discuss the situation in germany. further with karen petals. she's leader of the energy climate and resource center at the ether economic institute. thanks a lot for joining us on d. w business. i mean, we just saw in that report the, some manufacturers are turning off machines to try and save on energy. could we

reach a point this year where the energy crunch is so acute that we're getting manufacturing stoppages. we already observed that not on a white scale, but on a smaller scale, we do see it already. and i mean there's basically 2 reasons. on the one hand, what we've just heard for economic reasons. so prices for energy, gas, or electricity rise so high that are in the face of either international competition or also because for, for other reasons, prices are put, prices cannot be increased. that much might not be profit, little profitable to produce any more. the other option that says cost sometimes is that that might be really a physical shortage of energy. and that then relates, of course more to gas. and that is to be seen. it's not that likely, but it depends on the winter depends on the conflict with russia. it is possible. the 3rd, there are companies with contracts for gas applies that do allow their gas supplies

to be interrupted. could we actually reach a point where we're, you know, what, those gas flies do stuff? some companies, i mean, it's hard to say because it really depends on the specifics of these contracts the companies have. but if, for example, there is the specified price band in which delivery is guaranteed, then might be very well that suppliers do not deliver anymore if they're basically purchase price as i increase it too much. or if there is an absolute shortage, then i would cut off those. of course i would have such a contract 1st and we just have the t t p figures for germany in the economy lusted and expand at the same rate as it has in similar economies. and the energy crunch is contributing to that. why is it more acute in, in germany than elsewhere? i mean basically the energy crunch can be felt across europe and also across the grow globe. one reason why and germany, it's more um it's more acute as

a are relying more strongly on natural gas, not only for heating, but also for electricity production compared to countries like france, like norway, like switzerland. we do have market prices, so we don't have a publicly regulated energy prices. and on top of that, we rely more on russian gas than other european countries. and we had a decline of energy production from renewables, especially from when. now the situation with russia that you, you've mentioned, that doesn't seem to be easing any, can you give us any hope for 2022 going forward? i mean, really a lot depends on only on energy prices, but also other supply chains for goods and for intermediate products as well on the s on the corona situation. now it is to be expected that prices decline in spring and summer when there is less energy demand. i mean winter, it's always higher to wish extend that will lead to decreasing prices that we observe already remains to be c. okay,

current people from the eco institute. thank you very much. thank you. i china's global trade surplus search to over $676000000000.20 that's likely the highest ever for any country that's due to exports rising by almost 30 percent despite semiconductors, shortages that have disrupted manufacturing. the main driver of china's vast surplus is the u. s. his unwavering appetite for chinese goods, like electronics, cloves, and furniture, despite oftentimes higher tariffs. that's why more than half of china's surplus is in trade with the united states. china also increased exports to the european union and africa, both of which expanded more than 20 percent last year, while exports to latin america increased by 40 percent. but this spectacular growth may not continue this year. according to china's customs administration. i want

union where i'm all, we are facing increasing factors of uncertainty, instability, and unbalance in terms of trade. and our economy is facing a 3 pronged challenge of contracting demand, supply, shock, and low expectation. and you can see the global pandemic remains severe, where the external environment has become increasingly uncertain. the momentum of international demand recovery is slowing down. china however, is not slowing down. the government's 5 year plan favors scientific research and advance manufacturing its economy as switch from making cheap product to producing robots, cars and airplanes that the country aims to sell more overseas in the years to come . now let's look at some of the other guy who business stories making news, and staying in china. chinese property, develop a have a grant, has reached an agreement to delay payments for a 600000000 euro bond. the deal between deal signing between bondholders and every

grant main business unit allows the company to avoid what would have been it 1st default on a public on shore bond. and facebook's parent company metro face is a $3000000000.00 class action lawsuit in the u. k. it's relegation that abused its market dominance by exploiting the personal data of 44000000 uses. the company says uses did have meaningful control over what information they shed. i, the unemployment rate on the front island of the union is almost double the average for the rest of friends, but brighter days could be on the horizon. a group of entrepreneurs hopes to turn the tropical island in the indian ocean into a global tech hub. re union island is one of the was hot spots for biodiversity. it could soon also become a world wide digital hub. and international consortium recently invested 50000000 euros in an internet cable 24 times faster than existing connections. and that's

just the beginning on them discovery, which is our new cable connects the island to south africa and other cable as planned to lean gree union to india. and china will also become a data hub where you can store huge amounts of information. yeah, we'll build enormous data centers and are hoping for private companies to invest up to 1000000000 euros onshore. the bottom line, he says, coming to reunion island should be a no brainer for the world's internet giants. those people qualified was that he was always psych herb module. there are 5 later hubs in the world, war 2 in the united states to asia and one in europe. but there is a gap in the indian ocean, and so reunion island would be a magical spot for 6th up. it's in the middle of the ocean, but part of europe, that means you have outstanding protection for your data plus other acids, such as very well formed workers. spinning for me,

this entrepreneur has already chosen reunion, ireland over mainland france. a company provides a platform to calculate exact doses of medication for newborns to repel connected there. the internet here is as fast as in paris class reunion island gives us a discount on employers charges which brings down our non wage labor costs. rochelle, she meets fellow business people at an annual digital trade fair. many here are hoping that turning her union into a digital hub will help solve one problem that starting to emerge. yes. yes. so she'll know little quit from we are having difficulties finding id specialist this, if it, if we're a union island, became a digital hub that would certainly at a more qualified personnel and make it easier for us to recruit you staff small. the digital plans could bring down local unemployment, currently more than twice the national average. but this economist says they

wouldn't be a cure or either libya, sons, to cover your character model, ashley, young, numeric, thousands of on this. no jobs could be created in the digital sector. if this would not to cover all our job seekers over the coming 5 or 10 years when we're people have in the past worked in traditional areas on can't be trained for the digital sector overnight. like the old recorders show, no convincing companies to set up shop here might not be such a challenge after all. good connectivity is not the islands, only trump let's over me and the business. same here and bill. and if you do, i'm all from us to head over to our website, d dot com slash business. you can also find us on the d doing is youtube channel, and i'll get back with

ah, eco, india. she's the pond savior. graham, we're tom wire wants to revive polluted dried up water holes. they serve a vital function for the water supply and ecosystems near metropolises. he's getting closer to his goal thanks to the help. a many volunteers. he go india. in 30 minutes on d. w. o . to 6th grade, so he did,

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whom? ah, ah ah, this is it'll be news line from berlin hard deadline. russia puts the west on notice. moscow warner is time is running out to demand its security demands. after a week of high level.