welcome to the show. i'm from beardsley in berlin. the german government has agreed to buy out almost all shares of the private gas utility una per, effectively nationalizing the company. it's the latest twist and a month long saga that began with russian moves to slash the delivery of pipeline gas unit for a said to have a new majority owner. the german government, which has bought out finish state owned energy company for them and now holds 98.5 percent of shares. uniform had been caught up in the ongoing energy crisis after russia stopped almost all natural gas flows to germany in response to sanctions over the wine ukraine. to deliver on its long term contracts, univer had to buy gas elsewhere at much higher prices. this led to a devastating loss of 12000000000 euros during the 1st half of the year, and it will lead to further losses down the road. universe, not the only energy company facing losses as

a general measure to profit the sector. the german government was looking to instate a levy on gas close to 2 and a half cents per kilowatt hour to with paid by consumers. it is now unclear if that's still possible. renew juniper for scott with unit were being nationalized. the government would end up getting the money that gas consumers paid with a levy on gas angle. that means it wouldn't be a levy any more log, but a tax. and the government can only impose taxes on under very specific circumstances which don't apply here. so after nationalization and another 8000000000 euros provided more money might be needed to keep uniform afloat. it's just part of the price for germany's long dependency on cheap brush and gas. hans pittsburgh hoff researchers financial markets at home university. he joins me now from stuttgart. hospital welcome to the show you follow the banking crisis more than a decade ago. when states cited the system,

relevance of private businesses as a reason to intervene. is that same rationale also justified here? yes, is justified in it even more so justified? because i mean, a banking crisis, the bad thing, but you can get out of it on your own. here we have a kind of war policies and war economic policies which are necessary have to keep the backbone of our economy running. otherwise, we don't have the economic force to get through the difficult times in front of us . so the state must guarantee this, although for sure, state ownership is not an efficient but efficient form of ownership. usually, as you just observed, banks in that case returned to profitability rather fast. in this case, it might be different. is this a stewardship, or is it going to be a genuine state ownership for quite a time? in the past the many faces as well became a permanent ownership. i think that is not a good idea so many so many to choose not to have time stayed under state control

in many countries and became very inefficient. so i think we should have a perspective to get rid of this state ownership as the moment it get possible, again, was regarded as war situation in the east and the general situation on the global market for energy. do you think, however, it could be hard for the state of back out now that it's in well, i think it at the moment, i think not a good anyway. we must organize our gas supply in a way that the industry has enough gas and that at least people don't freeze to death and it must be able to organize a shortage of gas, inefficient and a fast way, particularly in the long run. however, i've been much will when the state comes in as a criterias which are not the economists criteria, which for example, bring people into board positions, things like that politic play. the role in the so in the long runs is, is non efficient way to organize things. but a war as we haven't, europe at the moment is not a very efficiency. anyway, we'll lose a lot of efficiency utilities more. there's a plan for germany to pass along

a lot of the costs that these utilities were facing a gas surcharge to come into effect in the coming days. if germany ends up taking over some of these companies, such as uniform, will be harder to ask gas consumers to essentially foot the bill for nationally own utilities. definitely, it might also be not legally feasible that because as you mentioned before, it becomes kind of a tax in a way also a bit unfair because i mean the people who took gas as, as their energy didn't know, policies risk and now they have to bail the risk and have to wear to cost carries the cost of this special risk. is the same, could have happened in a different geopolitical situation with loyal or any other kind of energy except for so susie, renewable energy. so i think all of this kind of putting all the costs on the, on the gas consumers looks not very fair. all right, hospitable golf,

at holland i'm university dot gov. thank you very much. pleasure. we go now to asia. the asian development bank has cut its forecast for economic growth in developing asia and the pacific, once again pointing to both global as wells regional challenges. now the region faced the several obstacles. central banks are tightening policy, which will curb economic activity rushes. invasion of ukraine is having global knock on effects. and of course, the ongoing cobit 19 pandemic is resulting in massive locked downs in the regions economic driver, china. the adp has now cut china's growth forecast for this year to 3.3 percent from a 5 percent projection in april. it would be the 1st year and more than 3 decades that the rest of developing asia would be expected to grow faster than china. now once you take out china, the rest of developing asia is projected to grow by 5.3 percent, both in 2022, as well as next year. the albert park is chief economist of the asian development

bank. i asked him how important chinese pandemic approach remains for how its economy warfare. well, of course, we've been adjusting our projections for economic growth in china downward steadily this year, largely because of the 0 covered pump locked down policies that have really hurt consumer sentiment in china. and this is the cause of that. but this fact that growth in other parts of asia is fast and then china is also a structural change where even without the 0 covered policy, china has been growing slower year by year over the past 5 or 10 years. and that's because they're facing some headwinds to growth in terms of population aging in terms of kind of exhausting some of the easy catch up opportunities for growth. and really trying to develop a true innovation system to drive future productivity growth. most countries,

as they get richer start to grow a bit slower, and i think that's what we're seeing in china. china is still very important to the region. it's still accounts for 60 percent of gdp in developing asia. and so even if it's growing slower, it would be contributing quite importantly to global growth. that said, i think this fact that we highlight in the report signals that people everywhere should really start to look to other parts of asia as kind of a local motive for growth going forward as well. that was over part chief economist at the asian development bank. talking about new downgrades to growth forecasts for the region, which i was response to the pandemic is just one reason why businesses are rethinking investment there. that's the message of a new position paper by the european chamber of commerce in china. the lobby group warns that bay jeans policies are making the country a less attractive home for investment, for european companies in particular. a beijing strict 0 coven policy is

a big part of it. hitting smaller and mid sized companies in particular. and discouraging newcomers from investing in china that's according to the paper. larger investors meanwhile, such as german firms, volkswagen and b, s. f, who have been in china for decades. they faced more criticism over time with china in light of the countries documented abuses and change on it's repressive policies . in hong kong, your luka is president of the chamber of commerce in china, which released that new position paper. you're welcome back to the show, your stance here is that business relations between china and the you are degrading in an alarming way. and yet we've seen that foreign direct investment from germany, the use of largest economy is actually quite high this year compared to pass years . that doesn't sound like the 2 sides are pulling apart. if you look on the, on the investment side, what you're seeing over the last years is that the top 10 european investors among them 5 germans are pouring it, big money,

china just to important the market potential is you just can't go to other countries. it's calm machinery, chemicals, but then about the other 1100 members that i have, you can see them pretty much on. busy auto pilot, meaning they're investing less and less in china. they are looking outside china for new opportunities. they're not leaving china, they're not laying off people. but it's a great disinterest franky also because that was back home and that was kind of visit. so on the foreign direct investment side, actually it's a very urgent development that they can see. and so anyway, we really have a problem there because all of our companies are very, very important. i think not only for us as chairman members, but all of the chinese economy. likewise. you see the many of them are sitting pat when it comes to investment. how much of this uncertainty is about china's recent experience with coven? and how much is it about larger problems such as growing european concerns of hong

kong, cian john, and the sharper elbows that we've seen from china, diplomacy in recent years. i guess for the big companies, the kind of when she and john hong kong discussion actually is really a headwind, they really have to walk on egg shells in order to actually explain why then china, it's very difficult. but it isn't that the them to know the choices. when we come to smaller companies, they're mostly below this radar. but of course, for them it's the kind of real estate sector crisis that we have the kind of no energy at times. because either honest mistakes like last year or now, or just like of rain or transportation issues. but above all of that, it's common 0 tolerance, the inability to travel the lock down or cities or the mycam or what kind of situation we are in right now. the city goes down, goes. busy beginner, another city goes down, as of course, read uncertainty across the field. business hates uncertainty. this report says

that china has a history of showing great pragmatism. in the face of such challenges, do you believe it will show that again, especially given how the leadership has shifted in recent years. they can let be the cover headline for report, ideology, trump, economy, china used to be very predictable, reliable, and subsequently very efficient. that's all being challenged by corporate policy, but also by other kinds of interventions in the economy. last year we have seen the correct on the private sector in the chinese software industry as well as cations. so in a way, we are seeing a very strange trend actually we don't like so hence, we come up with nearly a 1000 recommendations in order to actually show case where we are willing to put more money into the economy. try to open up, try to be usual. so what is going on over here is what many members ask vodka, president of the e chamber of commerce there that was recorded earlier. his reminder of our top

story. the german government has agreed to buy out almost all shares of the private gas utility unit birth effectively nationalizing the company. it comes just months after russia curtailed deliveries of pipeline gas. that's our show. thanks for watching. ah ah, with ah 5 grants

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