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Negative Interest Rates

Sweden's central bank has pushed its key interest rate deeper into negative territory. We hear what the Swedish people of are making of the Riksbank's economic policy.

Sweden's central bank has pushed its key interest rate deeper into negative territory. Andren Meiton, a correspondent at the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet in Stockholm, tells us what the Swedish people of are making of the Riksbank's economic policy. Sweden's move towards taking interest rates below zero has also been taken by the European Central Bank, plus Denmark and Japan. We get analysis from Irwin Stelzer at the Hudson Institute in Washington on why the strategy is being adopted by central banks.

Two executives from the online taxi service Uber are facing criminal charges in a French court. Charges like illicit storage of riders private details and connecting people with unlicensed drivers highlight the challenges online car hailing services like Uber face dealing with regulators around the world. We hear what ordinary people in Paris are making of Uber's battle with traditional taxi services.

Global demand for chocolate is sweet for the world's cocoa producers, but farmers who grow the beans in Ghana are not enjoying the perceived benefits of higher demand. We hear about the bitter sweet experiences of cocoa growers in West Africa.

The toy maker Vtech has upset parents by forcing them to accept legally that the tablet device their children play with could be hacked by criminals. Last November hackers stole the personal details of five million parents and children through the company's Learning Lodge app. Thousands of photos of children were taken, along with their names, birthdays, email addresses and passwords of their parents too. Now Vtech seems to have made parents angrier by adding a stern warning about hacking to its software. We get the analysis of Sarb Sembhi, a London-based information security expert.

(Picture: Sweden's Riksbank. Copyright: Getty Images.)

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27 minutes

Last on

Thu 11 Feb 2016 18:32GMT

Broadcast

  • Thu 11 Feb 2016 18:32GMT