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Business Daily: Arms and the man

13/01/2012

Arms and the man

BBC World Service - Business Daily, Arms and the man

Hungary's travails and how the arms industry is responding to declining sales.

Why Hungary's travails are causing concern worldwide and how the arms industry is responding to declining sales.

Hungary isn't a big country but just like Greece it is proving that even small European nations can play a big role in international economics.  

Like Greece Hungary is reckoned to be on the verge of bankruptcy.  It is trying to negotiate a loan of up  to $25 billion from International Monetary Fund to help it pay back its debts.  Hungary's problem is that the IMF isn't keen to lend. 

So how did it come to this? BBC correspondent Nick Thorpe reports from Budapest and Justin Rowlatt interviews Tobias Blattner who's European Economist at DAIWA investment bank and formerly of the European Central Bank about the wider impact of Hungary's problems.

And President Obama's announcement of a major overhaul of America's defence strategy will cause major repercussions amongs arms manufacturers around the world.  Justin Rowlatt speaks to Georg Adamowitsch the Managing Director of the Federal Association of the German Security and Defence Industry. 

Then he asks John Louth, Deputy Head of the Defence Industries and Societies Programme at the Royal United Services Institute about how the military landscape is changing internationally.

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