the head of the eurogroup meets with greece's new government. landing a deal. qatar buys a nearly 10% stake in iag. touchdown. not only for the american football teams. advertisers aim to steal the show at this weekend's super bowl. good morning. welcome. you are watching "the pulse." we are here in london. i'm guy johnson. francine lacqua off today but back monday. we are going to start in athens. eurogroup president jerome is set to meet greece's new government for the first time later today. it is a story that everybody is watching. we are trying to work out whether there is a mandate. we will talk about that in just a moment. let's talk about sanctions on russia. this is also part and parcel of the greek story at the moment. increasing violence in eastern ukraine. we are watching the story very carefully. there is talk of more individual stories here potentially more visa bans. ryan chilcote is on the ground in brussels. what have you been hearing from the foreign ministers? >> effectively, what they've done is kick the can up to their bosses. february 12,

gosselin yesterday, he is the head of the eurogroup and he made clear where the eurogroup stands in itselationship degrees. >> these are difficult problems and they will not go away in a short time tough times stick for new governments but their approach may be different and we will talk about how they want to address these problems within the boundaries of what we have agreed within the eurozone. >> that was my colleague speaking yesterday eu arrivals just beginning to start now. the tone for places like paris are a little bit more friendly. apparently mr. juncker has also invited him to brussels. but the tone coming out of places like germany are quite tough on this new greek administration and we're also getting that from some of the other capitals as well. the belgian finance minister taking a tough tone on this. he was making it very clear that he wants a tough line. >> greece has been the problem for a long time and we now have a new government and permit and's from the former government with respect to public finance and restructuring the economy and we really are quite insistent

. >> the president of the eurogroup is in the greek capital and will meet the finance minister.he interaction marks the start of the negotiations with its creditor. global markets will keep a close eye on developments from that meeting. let's get a check on the markets now. the essential bank cut a key interest rate. the bank had surprised the markets. business leaders have been calling on the central bank to cut rates to stimulate growth. all of the major european indices in the red at this hour. lower oil prices pushing inflation in january down 0.6%. unemployment members did show a slight improvement. let's take a look at some of the other business stories making headlines. qatar airways has picked up a stake in aig. they own iberia. they may consider increasing its ownership over time. it will help the airline further develop its westward strategy. google has disappointed investors yet again. revenues came in at $18.1 billion. the company blames a stronger currency. ad revenues have also declined. big spending pays off at amazon. the company surprised investors with better t

the eurogroup chief was speaking today and said greece's membership in the eurozone depends on athensticking to its prior agreement. syriza wants to do the opposite, renegotiating the terms. do you think greece leaving the euro could happen? >> no. we do not want to leave the eurozone. we want to change europe in order to have a nearly liberal -- a neo liberal europe and a social europe based on equality to >> georgios katrougalos all member states. -- based on equality to all member states. >> georgios katrougalos a member of the european parliament. in egypt two sons of ousted president hosni mubarak has been freed four years after they were arrested along with their father. they still face a retrial on corruption charges. their release comes as at least 15 people were killed sunday in antigovernment protests,4 years to the day since egypt's arab spring. more from cairo. >> concerned that the sons have left the prison. we had a false alarm last week and it appears they have been released. one day after the four-year anniversary of the attentive resolution in egypt -- the attempted r

this sends a strong message to the eurogroup that greece is going to negotiate very hard and deliver a tough message from athens to brussels and berlin. this is a country that wants to negotiate an incredibly strong. that was the message we got last night. we have had five years. we haven't made any progress in we're going to change the narrative area we have not seen a different party since 1974. this coalition cements the idea that alexis tsipras is not going to perform the u-turn people were talking about. >> there is just governing as a pragmatist. this puts this into question. the independent greeks are anti-a lot. they are center-right. they are still basically on the right. how do these parties coexist? "the pulse it's>> it's going to be fascinating to see that. alexis tsipras does not need the independent greeks that much. there has been summit meeting of minds to make this happen. one is from the left and one is from the right. at some point, the political spectrum meets again and maybe they can find some common ground. people will look at those nervously. how stable this wi

last night, they were talking -- the head of the eurogroup was talking about this orthodox or lack ofategy. >> they are difficult problems. they will not go away in a short time. it will take tough measures from new governments. their approach may be different. we will talk about how they want to address these problems. within the boundaries of what we have agreed to in the eurozone. >> it will be interesting to know exactly what the negotiating strategy looks like what kind of content there has been. the greek press saying the next finance minister we may get that confirmed later. none of this is confirmed. it is just coming out of the greek dress at the moment. maybe the back channel has already been established. already an understanding of what exactly the greeks now want. we will wait and we will watch. we will wait for confirmation from the government later and then we will get some flesh on the bones in terms of the negotiating strategy and the greek debt. back to you. >> speak to you later. >> the reminder that we will speaking -- we will be speaking with the ratings company th

the head of the eurogroup meets with greece's new government. landing a deal.a nearly 10% stake in iag. touchdown. not only for the american football teams. advertisers aim to steal the show at this weekend's super bowl. good morning. welcome. you are watching "the pulse." we are here in london. i'm guy johnson. francine lacqua off today but

government continues, it will manage to strike an agreement on principle before the web you wary eurogroupbureaucracy can move fast and close eight deal. >> perhaps 10 sling that in. -- penciling that in. >> they do not have the knowledge in experience and negotiations. i think it is prudent for them to ask for an extension. it will give them some time to manage the negotiations. >> if the current government remains in place, no extension. >> i think the current government could manage it if it acts fast. >> how tough is your job? >> it is difficult to make an assessment. all that i can say is that i only took three days of vacation in the summer and three days of vacation at christmas. >> what keeps you awake at night? >> nothing keeps me awake. >> what happens if greece leaves the euro? what happens if i missed the deadline on the 28th? >> no because we have things under control. that is why we work hard, to sleep at night. >> from athens to france, airbus is due to give their annual news conference in two hours. caroline is on the ground there. what can we expect? >> it is a key day for

greece's anti-austerity government prepares for its first face-to-face encounter with the leader of the eurogroup since coming to power. >> russia defiant. putin says sanctions araren't having a significant effect on the kremlin. >> things are not working in political terms. they may have been effect on the economic area but not political. >> google sales fall short as competition on mobile intensifies, but a happy holidays helps amazon beat estimates. >> assad a shakeup. the arab states nuking fires his economic officials one week after taking the throne. ♪ >> hello, welcome to countdown. >> also coming up, super bowl sunday. can kim kardashian help advertisers score a touchdown during america's biggest sporting event of the year? the newly elected greek prime minister is promising no surprises as he goes face-to-face with european officials for the first time. >> he assured martin schultz that greece will not make any unexpected moves regarding its finances. >> that sent the stock market in athens for a rebound after lunging to lows not seen since the peak of the debt crisis. >> hans nichols is

i caught up with a man at the top of the eurogroup. question for him is whoever wins the election, you have got to negotiate with them. what are you going to do? are you going to be more accommodating? >> there is very little support for a debt haircut. the support for the greeks is making the debts more sustainable and bearable. giving them more time to repay the loans. making it more bearable, we have done that already. that would be possible to look at once again. but actually reducing the value of the loans, taking a haircut, i do not think that is going to go anywhere. >> there are a couple of carrots here. on the one side, you have monetary policy. you negotiate with us you continue that bailout program continue to do what we say, we will buy your bonds in july. on the other side, he was saying we can make it more bearable, maybe extend securities and reduce interest rates. remember the concern over the greek elections a couple of months ago? i think that dissipated somewhat in the short term. without bond buying program and -- i

after the greek elections germany and the rest of the eurogroup will make some concessions toward greecet some kind of debt relief. the other european countries which did reforms will also demand something. in germany, we have voices saying you should not make further concessions. it is a very dangerous political situation. shows the effect we have done a lot in the eurozone to strengthen the union it is still in an unsustainable construction and something more has to happen. >> would all of those things be euro negative? >> the main thing right now is the ecb action -- the lack of growth and we will get a further drop in the euro. >> the objective is definitely to get growth going. you are saying that qe is unlikely to work through the banking channel, but it will work through the fx channel. if the politics or negative, it not only augment that story? >> it clearly is. the wishful thinking argument would be that we are going to get this further weakening, maybe even undershooting of the euro, which leads to a pickup of growth in the second half of this year which then would lead to the

that yanis varoufakis have -- if i can get my pronunciation right had spoken yesterday after the eurogroupt meetings and maybe that is an indication of the conversation is already started between greece and the rest of the eurozone about what happens next with the debt load. he is going to be the finance minister and he has done so on his personal blog. we spoke to him yesterday on air and he talked about how the negotiations were to go. i spoke to him last night as he was walking out of the athens plaza hotel on the other side of the square. he seemed in good spirits and maybe he already knew the news after that point after mr. tsipras was sworn in as he calls himself the accidental economist. i think he will try to avoid an accident in his relation with the eurozone once the negotiations start. >> one gets the feeling the voices from europe, the imf, are quite embracing of the opportunity to speak with the new government. what do you make of the comments so far? >> fairly mixed so far. mr. hollande has invited mr. tsipras to paris. and he is invited to brussels. the tone out of the capit