Welcome to countdown. Anna is off today. Bloomberg reporters are standing by across the world ready to deliver the stories that will drive your day. John has more on what we can expect from the ecb. John dawson has the highlights from hong kong. , set toe hathaway report record profits tomorrow. Latest. Hyde has the later, the uks thirdbiggest insurer. Julian roberts will join us after the earnings break at 7 00. Hollywood make it all of the attention when it comes to movie making, but what about nigerias Film Industry . We will hear from the man behind the socalled nigerian netflix. That is later. Chair janetrve yellen said the central bank is likely to keep trimming asset or justice. Policymakers asset purchases. What we need to do and will be doing in the weeks ahead is to try to get a firmer handle on exactly how much of that set of soft data can be explained by weather. Is not mostly weather, would you consider changing the rate of tapering . Have said in our statement, asset purchases are not on a preset course. If there is a significant change in the outlook, we would be open to reconsidering. I would not want to jump to conclusions. Here to discuss her testimony and you look at the eurozone unemployment numbers, the fed will continue to taper at the same pace. Given this was two weeks after her last testimony, we were expect in a couple of little adjustments. T was about the weather there is a clear bias here. On the data is bad, people blame the weather. When it is good, they consider that an outlier. When the fed meets again, we give revisions to the projections, the outlook for growth. The outlook for Interest Rates will be your key indicator. Lets talk about the eurozone. Mario draghi has spoken once again about deflation. The ecb ready to act. Where does that leave us . Today is very important. I put together his stated dialin the. Dilemma. They will be looking at things like gdp. The first time we have seen italy, spain, france, engineering france and germany generate growth. Pmi is not telling a clear story right now. Germany is still full steam ahead. Whether it is common ground, a broad based issue is low inflation. Some of those regional figures out of germany showing inflation at one percent. What will the ecb do about it . In 2016see inflation well below two percent, people will be asking the credibility question. Ghi keeps saying he does not believe there is deflation yet. Mary oh. To mario. The eurozone is not japan. Standard bank takes a very interesting line. The tcp will deny inflation the ecb will deny inflation. It is worth considering, there is a risk for very low inflation. Just as harmful. How are they going to address it . Something. O do a big day next thursday. 10 00 u. K. Time. Matching theion highest level in more than a year or so. The goal is to drive core inflation to two percent. Lets bring in john dawson. They are in the process of exiting deflation. Inflation is the highest in more than five years, since 2008, 1. 2 . This before this crucial april tax increase. That is the plan so far. The inflation is the highest level in five years. Retail sales, the biggest increase in january since april of 2010. Further evidence people are spending he for the april tax increase before the april tax increase kicks into action. What else do that for you today . Production,l machinery orders coming in, that was an enormous figure. It grew the most since 2011. Four percent was the actual figure and estimates for 2. 8 . High demand for cars. Governor,f japan everything to make it happen. So far, so good. Friday, i know you love your films. Who will win best picture this weekend at the oscars . I think it will probably be 12 years a slave. That will win. I hope. Or gravity. I think you are right, john. Lets turn to ukraine. Aidan is developing, the interim government has been sworn in the Ukrainian Parliament has just voted in a new government. The job be to prepare the country for snap elections in may. A billion dollars in loan guarantees. The imf will send a delegation here next week. Those loan issues are big 1, 13 billion dollars is what this country owes. A lot of that money is due in june. I spoke to the countries new Prime Minister. We will do everything not to default. If we get the Financial Support from the united states, the European Union, the imf, we will do it. He will be this country least popular Prime Minister ever. Those loans will come with conditions that will not go down well in ukraine. Think of this as greece 2. 0. Kiev, going on outside of south of the country. Gunmen have raised the russian flag. The former president is in russia and he has said he will hold a press conference there this friday. Lets get the latest out of ukraine. Does the National Unity government truly stand for the nation, ryan . You mentioned the parliament storming that happened yesterday. What is the view within the country . Ukraine, theren is a constituency of tens of thousands of people that had been standing on independence square. That is what they would say to you. There has been plenty of tension , Something Like 65 of the population there is russia. They are concerned about their interest that this new government does not have their interest in the russian language and their culture. At the forefront of their minds. They are not really satisfied perhaps. A, the this chaos in crime parliamentary seizure yesterday. Those gunmen are still in that building. At the airport this morning, we have reports of more gunmen, a separate group of gunmen, spotted at the airport. Identification on their uniforms, not clear where they come from. No evidence that they are from russia. Speculation, of course, to that effect and it is one of the big stories this morning. There is another group of armed men surfacing. What is the view on russia within ukraine . Various views from various politicians. Are russias actions friendly or hostile . Something like 20 of the entire ukrainian population are ethnic russians. Generally speaking, they look at russia quite favorably. There are concerns about the military exercises that russia is currently conduct inc. On its side of the border conducting on its side of the border. The situation in crimea is aggregating aggravating things. About a month ago, russia said they would revive 15 billion. Provide 15 billion. President Vladimir Putin has been quiet on the matter. He calls the shots. He has not said anything one way or the other. Nowformer president , who is under russian production, he is in russia and he is not very well liked, you even among the russians in ukraine. Go down well in terms of ukrainians perceptions of russia. In general, it is not at the forefront of peoples minds. Thank you. Coming up, we will look ahead to next weeks ecb meeting, the crucial question, what is it take for mario draghi to do something drastic . Time for todays company news. New chiefas named a economic advisor. The wall street journal reported this week that he classed with cofounder bill gross before he left. Google is calling an email privacy lawsuit too big. It argues that should not have to face a single suit. The company is currently fighting claims it is illegally scanning private email messages. The Company Controlled by asias richest man is expanding in europe and north america will looking to sell assets in china. Welcome back. Anna is off today. Lets start by focusing on todays inflation and unemployment data out of the eurozone. Joining us now is simon smith. Should the ecb be doing something about inflation . Less, given the german numbers we had yesterday. A strong need to act. Look what happened in november. Market rates have moved higher. Think the need is there, what can they do . It is difficult a cousin they talk about it is difficult because they talk about it is all they have. Cut the deposit rate, yes. But the refinancing rate,. 25 already. It is not going to make that much of the difference. It means putting more liquidity in the system in a different way. But at a type of qe from the bank of england. It is not going to be the same in terms of the impact from the other central banks. The ecb cannot get money flowing from banks to businesses . Eurozone, we are much more reliant on the Banking Sector versus the capital markets. Banks have been prepaying months back. That is a challenge, but it is pretty weak in terms of achieving not. It is the easiest of the three. The comfort is there. Ing the refinancing rate it does not get money publicly in the system. Talk about japan. Cpi, 1. 3 . Things are looking good on the headline figure. Funny one, isnt it . It has been rising. It could only be the challenges next year in keeping that cpi going towards two percent. The sales tax will increase it. We will see a lot of distortions on the cpi numbers. The challenge is reading through that data. We are going to have a real difficult read of the japan data. Huge expectations, everyone goes out and buys their the ticket items. Simon, back to you in a second. Janet yellen testified before the senate yesterday. Details on what is happening in ukraine. Simon smith stays with us. Welcome back. This is countdown. Simon smith is here. Event in ukraine spending sending the swiss franc higher against the euro. The euro falling across the board this week. Do we expect further flight to quality because of what is happening in the you crying . It is been interesting what we have seen in the markets this week. Well. Ve china as splitting the difference between how that is impacting markets, what is the impact of what is going on in china or says what we are seeing a new crane. What we are seeing in ukraine. This,g through all of this has been not an easy job in terms of knowing extent to which ukraine is impacted. Its worstn is set for month in 20 years. Is this tactical ahead of the broadening of the trading band . We saw a one percent move today. You have to go way back to see that sort of volatility. Yes, i think they are preparing markets for great volatility, but with china, it feels like the fed 25 years ago. You have to read the tea leaves. It it isd today, probably easier to read what they are trying to do. Janet yellen was pretty clear yesterday. We will keep tapering at a steady rate. It was interesting. It comes back the next month and very little difference. It will take a lot for them to deviate from this path. To go off that path, it would viewers in terms of the uncertainty it could be worse in terms of the uncertainty. Is on the right path in terms of not eating the notet speculating on getting the markets speculating on will they or wont they. Phaseyou expect the next of for guidance to look, simon . It to a few other nebulous concepts. It is always a risk with a central bank when youre trying to stake it on one single indicator like that. Currencies. The best work Commodity Currencies in february. Will that continue . February has been a very funny month. Especially the last two weeks, we have seen what is going on in the emerging markets. We would like to see a bit more dominance. Thank you. Simon smith. The aig ceo, will he make profit . Find out. John kerry has urged russia to respect the sovereignty of ukraine. Give the newia to government breathing space. Russia fighter jets have been moved to patrol the border. Russia on thee to choices that they make in the next few days. Mario draghi says that he is committed to defend the you the euro against deflation. That theyre expecting us to break at 10 a. M. London time. The best film, 12 years a been nominated. Charlie rose has been speaking to the director. It wasnt referenced, it was not there for me. And findto investigate out about that. Rose atan watch charlie 10 p. M. London time. Hello, welcome to countdown. The Parent Company of British Airways and iberia reports for your results within the hour. He has his work cut out for structuring the troubled spanish subsidiary. Be a prophet, isnt there . There should be a prophet. They have been trending towards profitability. It should be well and profit. What are some of the big nearterm risks. The biggest is really execution risk on either area. There is some work to be done. They have an agreement with pilots and crab in crew for productivity enhancements which are key to the longterm profitability. The agreement still have to be ratified. Foreign investors, one of the risks is a lot of the good news is being priced in. Gives you a bit less margin. Are they on track then . It looks like that. If you look back, you had to turn around British Airways. Mindoming he has set his to iberia. It seems to be going pretty well. Would you say it is ahead of track compared to the other big bluechip airlines . Going through a real organization. Onre do you think they stand who is further down the road . Lets all three of them have big restructuring plans. Iag is probably best positioned. They have made the most progress and probably have the least execution risks left. We will see you after those are released in about 27 minutes. Angela merkel began her speech to the British Parliament by telling the audience that she has come to disappoint them. Should not weigh in on the debate over u. K. And the eu membership, she said the country shared responsibility to make europe stronger and more competitive. Were the comments well received by lawmakers . Certainly those under expecting Angela Merkel to arrive in london with a list of concessions that she was ready to give to the u. K. They would certainly have been disappointed. She did have one message that. Hey couldve agreed with we need a strong United Kingdom with a strong voice inside of the European Union. We have that, we will be able to make the necessary changes for the benefit of all. Her sameere you have something which is actually on the platform of all three Major Political parties. That the European Union could do with some changes just to get a bit stronger. As the german chancellor, i see britain as an important ally in this endeavor. The European Union must become stronger, it must become more stable, more competitive. It must rally around and focus on the challenges of our time. Strong european institutions. The European Union which is more competitive, it goes for a much with what David Cameron has been talking about. One thing they are not talking about and that is treaty change. Shes not going down that road. Thanks, david. Berkshire hathaway is set to report for last year on saturday. It is encore to post a record profit. Hes doing what he does best. His longterm track record is one of the best in investing. He made one of his first early investors incredibly wealthy. Theyre expecting 22 gain in profit. That comes up tomorrow. Is all about the u. S. Economy. They have such a diverse range of energy, infrastructure. It, they tend to have done well. One area that they have not done, one of the companies he has owned, one of the most famed companies that he holds. It has not borne fruit in 2013. It is got a lot of international exposure. U. S. And the growing economy. He holds many records. One longstanding record might come to an end this year. A 44 year record. It could be the first time he ever misses his target to increase the net worth more rapidly than the s p 500. He doesnt care about the share price . He doesnt. You look at the book value of Berkshire Hathaway. Since he took over it has outperformed the s p 500. You look at five years, each five years always outperformed the s p 500. This time it might not. 2013 was such a stellar year. The s p 500 returned 128 since the end of 2008. That is a phenomenal performance but it is not living quite up to his usual target. 65, thet Forget Society book thought he was 19. Year on year, compounded, generally youre getting 20 from Berkshire Hathaway. That heinz might be one of the big winners. They pay big dividends. He did. Doing very well. 280 billion dollars is how big Berkshire Hathaway. My next question would be half an hour. Tell me every one of the 60 investments. Ok, i will quietly go away. Only joking. The next generation of mobile phones could look decidedly more feminine. That is if danny choo has his way. He is ready to launch a robot doll. There is a serious issue of people that dont go outdoors or stay outside. They might ensure that they stay indoors and are not lonely. A character that i invented in 2007. She was very recently, just illustration. I wanted something more physical that i could carry around with me. In theorn and raised u. K. And i discovered Japanese Culture when i was in the u. K. And i decided that i wanted to live and work in japan. Would like to share my daily japanese life online and that slowly attracted audience worldwide. I used to make shoes. I knew it would be difficult to achieve my dreams. I was quite surprised that i created this. He has won at home. We ended up working on the doll. Several versions of the stall. There is the automated version which is robotic and is powered by electricity. Then there is a manual version which is nonrobotic that is powered by your imagination. Functions. At the moment, she is powered by an android device. So, she can pair up with various apis. Depending what you tell it to do, she will let you know. Eventually, i want her to replace your mobile phone. The mobile version will be ready in march. She will be able to do everything that your mobile phone can do. I think it is perfect for the Lonely People that dont need to be lonely anymore. Next, well go inside the Third LargestFilm Industry in the world you probably never heard of. Time for todays company news. John Thompson Says the challenge facing the company out to direct its resources. Iny sat down with bloomberg this list of interview. This is about focus. One of the reasons why we chose our new ceo is that he has a Strong Technology background and whatderstands exactly needs