A warm welcome back to countdown. I am anna edwards. Lets tell you what is coming up later this morning on the pulse we will be joined by the former tesco boss. He will discuss one of his newest ventures and share his thoughts on u. K. Business. Before all that, lets get back to our top story. What has been taking place in turkey. Prime minister erdogan has declared victory in local elections. Lets get to istanbul where we are joined by Elliott Gotkine. A huge victory for Prime Minister erdogan. Alongside thening mayoral candidate for a stengel where he won for istanbul where he once ruled the roost. His party was very much in play here. Questions, wasd he going to win more of the vote, would they hold off, would they hold onto istanbul . The answer to all of those questions, yes. He has scored the political equivalent of a hat trick. He felt emboldened yesterday when he came onto the dock any outside his headquarters in the turkish capital to greet thousands of cheering supporters. He said that his victory was a defeat for the politics of lies and montage, reference to the allegation of corruption that has appeared on social media over the last few months. Certainly, erdogan will feel emboldened as a result of this. Policy, stronger politics and stronger democracy. The economy, the wealth of turks here has tripled over the last decade or so. When it came down to it, they trusted Prime Minister erdogan more than they trusted social media. Interesting that this is but the ruling party tried to emphasize, the economic success even as turkey faces slightly Slower Growth in the most recent months. This is a man who has been in power for more than 10 years. Does anything change from here . Global turks was telling us they dont expect anything to change. We dont expect Prime Minister erdogan to be gracious in victory. He has vowed to go after those people that he sees as being behind the revelations, the corruption allegations that have purportedly implicated him, his family and other members of his government. The person he sees behind that is a clark. Been searching and no doubt purges will continue. After this victory, erdogan will feel he has been given the green light to continue in his economic policies, also his policies on social media and going for the presidency. We are due to have president ial elections here in turkey in august. We may expect that position of president , which mainly is ceremonial in turkey, to be emboldened or bolstered somewhat were erdogan to run for that. Goes, as the economy growth expected to slow now but the lire is strengthening. Fascinating. Politicalns when a establishment takes on social media. Thank you. Elliott will be with us throughout the day with more coverage. With a record low turnout, frances local elections on sunday saw a shift towards rightwing parties. Our next guest says French Business owners dont trust the government. Is the from paris great to have you on the program. Thank you very much for joining us. These are Election Results being seen as a disappointing event for hollande. How does business interpret the result . What do you think is the message for French Business from these elections . Good morning. I think what it says is that the future ahead is going to be rather difficult. Politicalajor instability as well as economic instability. You are aware that the past two years have been very tough for French Businesses. There is a major distrust in the government or its ability to implement business laws. The economy in france isnt doing well. All thegging behind Major Economies in europe. Right now everybody is in a stop and go mode where you invest just what is necessary to keep his nose running. We have no vision of the future. What we have witnessed in the past two weeks with the local elections is not going to sue the future for us. Soothe the future for us. What should be at the top of the todo list of the french government . Should it be around tax reform, labor market reform, what would your suggestion be . It is all in one word, flexibility. Of fiscal in terms ,aws, in terms of labor market everything is very rigid. Nowadays, what you need is a major shock. You need to make things easy. In france, everything is difficult. I dont want to sound like i am but we have taxes almost every six weeks. We have a new tax or new regulation, the labor code is the size of a phone book. It is maybe bigger, making things very difficult to adjust to cycles. Nowadays, Companies Need to be extremely flexible because Business Cycles are shorter and shorter. You cannot adapt to the World Economy and france is now part of a much bigger economy, which is europe and the world. You cannot adopt although cycles with a very strict and rigid set of laws, whether they are fiscal or labor. We need to make things easy for france. Do you see anybody within the french political establishment who has the willingness and the tenacity to take on farreaching longerterm labor market reform . Us ist history proves to that it is easy to have ideas but it is much tougher to implement a them. Nowadaysto think that when you look at the political scene in france, whether left or right, they seem to come from the same mindframe. , somebodyn outsider from the real world who has been in business, somebody who has worked in private companies. I am sure you will remember that most of the governing body in france is made up of civil servants. We need a major shakeup in terms of the political model. Fast ando make things we need to adapt very clearly. When you look at the economic dashboard of france, i think things are very alarming. You need to act very fast. Whether all the Major Political figures that we see now will be able to implement what is needed, i doubt it. I think we are at a very special aresroads and clearly we calling people from outside the political framework. You have business experience. Are you putting yourself forward as someone up to the challenge . I dont want to be implemented in politics. I was a Vice President of an organization which performs lobbying activities with the government. We are not a political organization. I have been doing that for 13 years and trying to change things and show the real world to people who always seem to look at the world through its assistance through statistics. Thank you thank you very much for joining us, laurent vronski. Andng up, sanctions discussions between the u. S. , russia and the European Union over ukraine. We will be looking at how germanys date business is making itself heard. Time for todays company news. Samsung, a supplier of batteries to apple has agreed to buy thiel industries for about 3. 3 billion. The deal expands the reach of sdis lithiumion battery business through the chemicals and Electronic Materials supply chain. Deutsche bank is considering whether to refrain from working on China Nuclear power groups ipo amid a probe of hiring practices in asia. Deutsche bank received a request for information from the u. S. Ftc late last year. Huawei, chinas biggest maker of phone Network Equipment posted record sales and earnings on demand from wireless carriers. Huawei is broadening its product lineup with smart phones, tablets and business computing products. Welcome back to countdown. I am anna edwards. In parishour meeting yesterday, u. S. Secretary of state john kerry pushed russias far ms. Foreign minister to withdraw from ukraines border. Ov Ryan Chilcote is here with the details. Not so much what they accomplished, all they really accomplished was to meet again after they speak with their respective leaders, but we did get a sense of what they are after. You have got to bank cold war foes two cold war foes talking about a third country. The russians have made it very clear. They want the russian language enshrined as a state language alongside ukrainian. It was, by the way, a state language up until president yanukovych was ousted. Want, theyhing they want ukraine to say it will never join nato. Geopolitics important here. The United States wants russia to pull back its army which is on the ukrainian border. The u. S. Estimates that russian fortis forces are about 40,000 strong. They want the russians to talk to the ukrainians which the russians have refused to do thus far. Heard the ukrainians saying russians should focus on internal affairs. The beginning of talks. What about the way that the european corporate scene has been reacting to the sanctions conversations . German companies have made some public statements against how europe has been handling the crisis. Maybe we shouldnt be surprised. From a german expert perspective, russia is there 11th biggest market. It is one third of the French Market for exports. It is half of the you ks. 36 billion. Last wednesday, the siemens ceo went to meet with president putin. Back in berlin, they said, why did you do that . The ceo came back, gave an interview and said, we are just looking beyond shortterm volatility. It is an important market for them. That is not it. We heard from the face in group enkrupp ceo saying it hasnt been very pragmatic. They are in their big battle with nike. Putin should have been brought into the political process earlier he thought more conversations should have been happening. Bottom line, russia is the third biggest market, you have got the world cup coming up and their share price is down 15 since january 22. A big reason for that is all the tensions in ukraine. People thinkthe b they are going to lose the russian market, but the russian ruble is down. Looking back at the First Quarter, a lot of companies with exposure to russia are saying, ruble weakness really hurt us. That makes their competitors but more attractive. All of that takes place at a ,ime when the micex is higher having bounced back a little bit from earlier. As has the ruble. Things do appear to be stabilizing. Thank you very much, Ryan Chilcote. Lets get back to the macroeconomic agenda. Euro area inflation will be released later today. Estimates are for a slowdown that would keep pressure on the European Central bank. Manus cranny joins us. A really important data point for europe. How weak is it going to be . What are the expectations . When you introduce that macro inflation, everybody has practically gone to sleep. Why does it matter . It is what you and i think prices are going to do. Are we locked into a cycle of prices continuing to drop . We are looking at the lowest in four years. That is the conundrum. We are in that selffulfilling or self reinforcing spiral. Look at the two biggest names. He says, this is temporary. Very clearly not in that kind of cycle. Thirds of the deceleration is down to energy prices. It is down to what they call unprocessed food. Isnt that fruit and veg . Sorry, they are processed. On the other side, you have mario draghi saying, we are ready to act if we see this is a situation that is really gathering strength. We are ready to act. Dont worry because all the action we have taken so far is going to take in. Not so in spain. Retail sales fell there as well. And in germany. Parts of germany, we got data which certainly was below where many economists predicted on inflation. What is the market expecting the ecb to do with this data . Market investors thinking the ecb is going to do more to stimulate the euro zone economy . I think there is a great deal of hope. It is a question of when all the doves are crying. Euro dollar is down for the second week in a row. What you have got here, bank of america saying deflation has become a clear and present danger but the market is not positioned. They say the market is not positioned for a cut. Not right now. Possibly later in the year. Sachs saying, the biggest single piece of information that the ecb will look at is liquidity. Liquidity that they pumped into the banks which the banks are paying back. Liquidity is at the lowest level since 2011. That causes the overall drivers to the real market i heard it. When doves cry. That Little Prince song. Thank you very much. Manus cranny on euro zone inflation. Just ahead, european ipos saw their best start of the year since 2007. We will see how they compare to the rest of the world. That is coming up after the break. Welcome back to countdown. I am anna edwards. It has been the best start to the year for european ipos since 2007. Joining us now to talk through ourbiggest deals is European Business correspondent, caroline hyde. How strong a start to the year is this . 18 billion from in europe, that is triple what we saw in the First Quarter of 2013. The best in seven years. The relief from the recession in meant that it lord a lot of Companies Looking to sell shares in the third quarter, trying to get to the starting blocks early. Europe beat asia and the United States. It was the bestperforming region. We can see how it stacks up compared to previous years. Not as high as 2007 but well above last year. I think what is really interesting is when you drill down and look at which companies are coming, it is those that are exposed to the consumer. Retailers, those are the areanies people betting going to do a lot better as we start to spend more. For listingsa hub from all over the world. What we are seeing here is a lot of u. K. Businesses tapping into the recovery. Quite a domestic story being illustrated by the companies that are choosing to ipo right now. Exactly. Boohoo, the Online Fashion retailer. They came to the market. Even companies such as pets at home havent fared so well since the listing but it is a bet that these companies will perform better. Even russian companies. Down 7 since they listed, probably over concern of the volatility in russia. There is a bet that the consumer is returning to europe in general. That bodes for those that are in the pipeline as well. Just eat, and online takeaway Company Growing in the united kingdom, they are set to sell shares. Europe doing quite well compared to other parts of the world. Interestingly the United States fell. Asia ass a big player, well. Thank you very much. Coming up, we will be live in istanbul once again. Prime minister erdogan against twitter. How did they fare against each other . Or analysis when we return. Welcome back to countdown. Lets get to manus cranny for the fx check. We are seeing turkish lira rise, euro fall. It is time to get involved in their assets. A little bit more continuity comes through. Have a look at the aussie dollar dollar. This has to be the biggest monthly gain since september of last year, up 4 in march. People taking money off the table ahead of the rba meeting tomorrow. Goldman sachs saying you may get a rate cut. I will leave you with a look at the euro as we go into the onemonth high onemonth low, excuse me. Cut their bullish positions on euro dollar for the first time in seven weeks. Thanks very much. These are the Bloomberg Top headlines. Author Michael Lewis says highfrequency investors have made tens of billions of dollars taking advantage of legal loopholes involving the u. S. Stock market. The author has a new book out. 60old the cbs show minutes that his Research Revealed stunning conclusions about traders. The stock market is rigged. ,he United States stock market the most iconic market in global capitalism is rigged. By a combination of the stock exchanges, the big wall street banks and highfrequency traders. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a warning. The group said Climate Change is no longer a hypothetical part of our future. It says the impact has already occurred. Killerel pointed to the heat waves and the drought in australia as examples. Chinas president is in brussels for talks with several european officials. Belgium is looking to increase its trade with china. The european bloc is chinas largest trading partner. The party of turkish prime topster erdogan came out on in local elections even as a Corruption Scandal and crackdown on social media energized his critics. Elliott gotkine sent his report. Twitter doesnt have much to do with the price of fish but it has dominated discussion about these elections. I dont think this was a good move. As people were communicating with each other, it wasnt a good thing to do. Thing, nothe best just for him but for other people as well. By blocking twitter and youtube, Prime Minister erdogan deepened the divide between his supporters and opponents. Point people who at this immensely dislike erdogan are the ones who are mostly outraged and affected. Are so memorized by his persona that they are ready to do anything that he wants them to do. This time around, he just wanted their votes. Allegations purportedly indicated him and his family. These elections came down to a question of who turkish voters trusted more. Prime minister erdogan and his family or social media. For those keeping the faith with twitter and youtube, what happens next could be equally epic. Probably there will be a move after the elections that criminalize usage. Of course, the cover meant can also unblock twitter. Prime minister erdogan is not a man known for backing down. Elliott gotkine, bloomberg. Our middle east editor joins us now live from istanbul. Elliott. Thank you. First off i can tell you that we saw the lira strengthening earlier in the day. Discuss the implications of this election victory for Prime Minister erdogan and his party. By a Global Source Partn