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World Business Report: First broadcast 2016/12/22 22:32 GMT: Italy Prepares To Rescue World's Oldest Bank

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First broadcast 2016/12/22 22:32 GMT

First broadcast 2016/12/22 22:32 GMT: Italy Prepares To Rescue World's Oldest Bank

Italy Prepares To Rescue World's Oldest Bank

BBC World Service - World Business Report, Italy Prepares To Rescue World's Oldest Bank

Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena has struggled to raise funds to secure its future.

It is thought BMPS, the world's oldest bank and Italy's third-biggest, has not raised enough money from a new share issue, which means the Government may have to bail it out.

Investors have shied away from supporting a plan to save the debt ridden bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which means the Italian Government may be forced to bail out the country's third largest financial institution. The problems at BMPS highlight a growing crisis for Italy, as many of the country's banks are stuck with bad debts of billions of euro, caused by the nation's troubled economy. A former Chief Economist of the Italian Treasury, Lorenzo Codogno, tells us the Italian crisis is a problem for the European Union, as well as Rome. 

US President-elect, Donald Trump, continues to court controversy with his choice of people to join his cabinet. Mr Trump has asked the economist Peter Navarro to run the new White House National Trade Council, where he will serve as director of US Trade and Industrial Policy. Mr Navarro has urged Americans not to buy Chinese goods, a subject about which he has written books and made a movie. The founder of Capital Economics, Roger Bootle, a long time supporter of free trade, gives us his take on the appointment by Donald Trump. 

Saudi Arabia has unveiled details of its budget plans for 2017, which reveal how the oil rich kingdom is banking on a rise in oil prices next year to get its finances under control. King Salman projected an increase in spending and a lower budget deficit as he acknowledged "very turbulent economic conditions.'' Saudi Arabia aims to diversify its economy away from reliance on oil exports and despite a huge deficit the Government wants to increase spending, as we hear from Oliver Cornock, editor of the Oxford Business Group.

The changes made by industry to the world's oceans is one of the least talked about areas of mankind's environmental impact. Factory ships that catch almost every fish that comes near them have left some species struggling to survive. Unlike issues like climate change the number of companies causing the problem is relatively small. Eight of them, which dominate 40 percent of the world's most valuable fisheries, have agreed to work together to stop over fishing. We get analysis from the veteran environmental campaigner, Jonathan Porritt. A dramatic drop in giraffe populations over the last 30 years has left the animal vulnerable to extinction. 

There are now believed to be fewer than 100,000 giraffes left in the world. But one Kenyan tourist attraction is helping to boost numbers, while offering visitors the chance to get up close to the world's tallest mammal. The BBC's Vivienne Nunis reports from Nairobi.

(Picture: Headquarters of the Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena. Getty Images.)

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