some 5,000 palestinians reportedly fled a u.n. refugee camp. more than 40 people have been killed in two days. those are the headlines from cnn, the world's news leader. world business today starts right now. good morning. from cnn london. i'm charles hodson. >> and' very good afternoon from cnn hong kong. i'm andrew stevens. you're watching world business today. the top stories this tuesday, august 16th. >> new signs of slowing growth in europe as leaders of the euro zones top two economies try to restore confidence in the region. >> google announces its biggest bet. what's in it for the company and what it means for consumers. warren buffett says tax the mega rich. just how much of a difference would that make? we'll crunch the numbers. let's go straight to the market action in europe now where stock exchanges have been open just over an hour. here's how they're performing so far today. we're seeing a selloff, in fact a considerable selloff throwing away the gains that we saw in monday's session. certainly in terms of the dax and the can you remember ant. i'm not sure if the numbers are correct. certainly the london ftse off. three quarters of a percent. the ami off by two thirds. not hit as hard. there's good reason for that. we'll come into that in a moment. it's a picture of slowing growth, andrew. more in a moment. >> absolutely. that slowing growth picture in europe playing out in the markets here in asia, charles. the ones which were over in the gdp numbers. let's look at how asia finished. nikkei it 225. finishing up by a quarter of one percent. all the other markets finishing in the red. hong kong closing trading now actually. it's come off its low. now down around a quarter. shanghai down around three quarters and australia down towards 1%. one market to mention, in south korea, finishing up 6% today. charles, it was closed yesterday. it missed out on the big rally catching up today. led partly by samsung up by the announcement by google buying motorola last night, charles. back to europe. investors will be watching closely as the french president nicolas sarkozy hosts angela merkel later today. talks start at 2:00 p.m. gmt in paris. close to a fiscal union is expected to top the agenda as the two leaders grapple with the blocked sovereign debt crisis. one means of dealing with that crisis will not be an the agenda. we're talking about the proposed euro zone bond. more on that in a moment. also on investors' radar will be the euro zone second quarter gdp. that's out in a little while. it's widely expected to be miserable, less than half the 0.8% growth figure that we saw in the previous quarter. one other important number that we have out today, germany releasing its gdp reading for the second quarter. it is 0.1%. basically, flat. almost flat lining after reading of 1.3% in the last quarter. for more on that meeting between the leaders of the euro zone's two biggest economies, let's go to nina los santos. it seems to me this gdp figure, this frat lining of growth first in france and now in germany really changes things in terms of the dynamics between sarkozy and merkel and what they can do to help the euro zone economies. >> it does indeed, charles. they'll probably have an awful lot more in common after the german gdp figure came out. france basically, it flat lined on friday. growth came in absolutely flat. what that does is that means that peechb the larger euros and members like france and germany with deep pockets that have traditionally about calling the shots of smaller countries like for instance portugal, ireland, also greece, what it means is that we don't have a two-speed europe anymore and that they really need to do more to try and come up with concerted action to match the fiscal policy with the monetary union that we have. at stake today is this currency. it's the euro, it's the currency that's shared by 17 nations here and some 320 million people. that's what economists and traders in the markets want to see is some kind of concerted effort to try and shore up this very money. >> i would give you a bit of advice, nina. don't hang on to that money too long. it might be worth less next year than it is now unless they can pull something out of the hat. in terms of the idea of a euro zone bond, not a euro bond. that's old hat. that's decades ago really. that came in. but the euro zone bond, that is something that the germans really are militating against. it would probably fall apart if she whispered she was in favor. in terms of the french, is it on their agenda? yeah. well, what we've been seeing and hearing from some of the officials close to mr. sarkozy is that officially it's too early to discuss the creation of what you're calling euro zone bond, effectively what this would mean is refinancing existing debt issued by individual countries. among the 17 nations that share the euro and reissuing it under one banner. effectively pooling the region's $13 trillion plus debt pile. they're saying it's too early at the moment to have those concrete discussions. what we need to see is take early first steps towards some kind of fiscal union. we don't yet know exactly how unified these countries could indeed be because they're very, very different ones. countries like spain have unemployment in the double digit. countries like french in the low single digits but still nearly 10%. that's the kind of issues that we're dealing with at the moment. these countries are just too different some would say to swallow the same medicine at the moment but effectively that's what the markets want to see, the creation of one security and that would in turn, bring down the yields on some of the peripheral euro zone countries that have been having to pay more than germany to finance their money out in the open markets, charles. >> nina, now, just snap out for us fairly briefly, what are the mechanics of this meeting? when will we hear anything, press conference and formal briefings. when will news start coming out of paris on this? >> we're going to be having a press conference later on today. what's going to happen is that sarkozy and merkel will be meeting about lunchtime, about 2:00 p.m. paris time. they'll be hammering out these kind of discussions. again, it's not entirely clear what concrete measures will be discussed today. we don't know whether they'll be discussing for instance short selling after four euro zone nations decided to ban it. we don't know whether they're going to be discussing that. they're not clear on that yet. when it comes to the topic of euro bonds, they say it's not on the official agenda, but you can bet it will come up, charles at the press conference which is happening about 6:30 p.m. here in paris. you can bet that people are going to be asking about that. that is when we'll get some kind of concrete opinion from them about what the markets want to see them talking about now. >> okay. nina los sap toes joining me live from paris where, of course, mrs. merkel will be hosted by president sarkozy later on today. nina has also written a blog about a possible euro zone pond and whether it could work and how. you can find it at cnn.com/business 360. andrew? charles, let's switch now to berlin. germany is in indeed the biggest economy in europe and until very, very recently, it's also been the star performer growing strongly when other european zone economies were weakening. that's changed today. what is going on in europe's biggest economy. let's go to diane live in berlin. it was 0.1% growth, diana. expected to be at least half a percent growth. what's happened? >> well, the office has put it down to reduction in construction investment, reduction in consumption, private households, also more imports as opposed to exports. yeah, a surprising slowdown in growth for a country that as you say has been a star performer really for the last couple of years through the 2008 crisis and through the whole of the euro zone debt crisis. it is of course, going to be of huge concern to the market and to all those who fear the possibility of a double-dip recession seeing germany, europe's largest economy slowing down like this, especially after those french gdp numbers which essentially showed a flat lining also. andrew? >> is this inevitable given that germany is such a strong exporter and i guess it's key export market like france are slowing quite dramatically now, diana? >> well, yes. i mean, france is one of its biggest export partners. the e.u. altogether. so inevitably it's going to be able to export less given the fact that they're struggling to cope with their own finances at the moment and consumption is down across the board. so yes, the euro zone debt crisis is going to affect german exports. andrew? >> you probably was able to hear nina and charles talking about the chance of a euro zone bond being discussed in paris between the german chancellor and the french president. that's not going to happen. it sounds like they're going to be talking more of a fiscal cooperation, diana. i just wonder, with this weaker growth and expected in germany, is that going to limit angela merkel's maneuver when she meets the french president. >> well, angela merkel made it very clear that euro bonds aren't going to be on the table for now. she was in a much stronger position because of germany's relative strength relative to france. as you say, there is a possibility that because of these bad figures, she will have to give a bit more ground. the fact of the matter is, she's pretty strict in her policies for now. as charles was saying, if she proposes so much as whispers that this dirty word of euro bond in that meeting, her coalition, partners, are going to be extremely angry. euro bond is really the top topic in all the german papers. you can see here in the frankfurter owe, they have a euro bond, what it might look like. this is my favorite from the left leaning which has a picture of james bond. my name is bond, euro bond. the line below is never say never again. that is what a lot of common day tors fear the german chancellor might do. basically, we're not -- it's not going to be implemented now. but both she and the finance minister and her spokesman and the finance minister have left the future as sort of open-ended question. so for now, the germans are going to continue trying to go down a sort of policy of forcing the more indebted countries of the euro zone to sort out their budgets, bring down their deficit. as we've seen in the crisis, the tools in the toolbox keep changing. it is fairly possible that if push comes to shove further down the line, as we see more inincreasing fiscal unity, something similar to this may happen. there are no absolutes. that's what the papers are saying, andrew. >> absolutely. the euro bond definitely shaken not stirred. diana, thanks so much for that. joining us live from berlin. charles. >> sorry. you and diana exchanging bond pleasantries is too much. anyway. u.s. markets put up a strong showing on monday. as you can see, big merger announcements pushed the dow up and the nasdaq and the s&p 500 up with it. the s&p 500 topped 2% up by 2.2%. analysts think the country may be getting optimistic about the future. the companies may be willing to spend the cash they've been holding on to. as to the outlook for u.s. markets when they open in five and a quarter hours from now, here's where u.s. futures stand in pre-market action and we're talking about most of those gains. monday being thrown away. so it's like merger monday almost didn't happen. so it would seem anyway as of now, andrew. >> yeah. pretty short-lived, wasn't it? well, google is shaking things up. google is one of the reasons that it was looking so good on wall street overnight. the search engine is shelling out billions of dollars for motorola mobility. but will it be enough to gain market share to be a real threat to apple? we'll find out when we come back. active naturals wheat formulas target and help repair damage in just 3 washes. for softer, stronger... ... hair with life. 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this is world business today. >> now, it was the biggest tech news that we've had in quite a while. google has just taken a bigger bite out of the mobile phone market. when i say a big bite, it certainly is a big bite. the search giant is buying motorola moekt for $12.5 billion. that deal is going to be all cash. it's certainly by far the biggest acquisition that google has made so far. google says that the deal will give its android operating system a stronger foothold in the mobile industry. even though android is already the world's most popular smartphone software. now, also owning motorola mobility means that google gets a stronger defensive position against the patent lawsuits that are currently flying around the sector. that's because motorola mobility comes with its own patents. about 17,000 of them. there are another 7,000 patents still pending. so microsoft, apple and or kl are among the players already suing google. this will add to their defensive position. take a look at this. motorola stock. certainly getting a huge pop up there. up 56%. now take into account, though, the actual offer price is 63% above the previous closing price. not surprising to see that number going up. more interesting perhaps is google stocks are down by more than 1% as google investors digested that news. perhaps they feel that google -- perhaps, charles, paying a little over the odds for motorola. but certainly strategically it looks like a good fit for google. >> yeah. even when things do fit, though, andrew, it's common actually for whoever is trying to buy another company to see their share price dip. how big a role did motor row low mobility's patents play in this? the executive editor at fast company magazine. >> there was a joke going around this morning that did google really want a long-term relationship or was it trying to get into motorola's patents, right? there's definitely the 17,000 patents that are going to help it compete with apple in the long-term. as you mentioned, microsoft and apple banded together to scoop up a bunch of nor tell patents that google wantedment that's a major component of this. there's no denying this has an impact on consumers and the rest of the mobile technology sector, right? starting with consumers, they're going to see higher quality, lower cost hand sets not only in the states but around the world. it really makes android a better platform with better phones. >> and what does this mean in the smartphone battles, particularly against apple's iphone and microsoft's windows phone 7? >> well, it strengthens google's position in the android market measure bli and helps them compete against apple given their incredible rise in global share. this is going to be a real threat to apple. but it also means for folks like rim and nokia, that this just got to be a much harder business for them. you know, you saw their shares ending a little bit up today on thoughts that they might be acquisition targets now. microsoft already has a deal with nokia, of course, a partnership with them. but now, i think there's going to be real focus on microsoft to figure out what to do next to strengthen the windows phone 7 platform and neighboring it competitive against apple and android being a major player. it does have another effect which it means fewer choices potentially for at least american consumers down the road and the fdc might be interested in that. they're looking at google already for all kinds of reasons. >> nora bish on there. we're going to take a break. join us in a moment, we'll talk about the restructuring at kwaun tis. that's after this. . but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. it's the brand allergists recommend most. ♪ lily and i are back on the road again. where we belong. with zyrtec®, i can love the air®. when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great 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australia's national airline qantas that turns it into a predominantly regional character. ceo says the move has been driven by the high cost of operating in australia, 20% higher than the airline's asian competitors. the major points are qantas will launch two new airlines based outside australia, one will be a budget carrier in a joint venture with japan airlines aimed to break into the north asian market. the other will be a full cost service possibly based in singapore. more details on that yet. about a thousand jobs will go with most coming from voluntarily redundancies. qantas plans to buy more of the jets to replace the aging fleet and deferred the purchase of six new super jumbo a-380 double decker aircraft. the low cost carrier going to be called jet start japan will be launched by the end of next year. we don't have the option of pretending that things will change if we stay the same. because they won't. to do nothing or tinker around the edges would only guarantee the end of qantas international in our home australia market. and that would be a tragedy. so we must change. we have a five-year plan and it starts today. >> now, as alan joyce was announcing, that plan qantas pilots were warning of a strike, upset over the major shift in the wager. they say they'll do everything they can to stop the restructuring. charles? >> china may be close to using its currency to fight inflation. in a moment, why expanding the band may be china's next move. from cnn london, i'm charles hodson. >> i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. welcome back. you're watching world business today. >> let's take another look at what's going on here in europe and 90 minutes into the trading day. we're looking at steepening losses with the gains that we saw on monday. all thrown away. particularly with the dax off by 2.75%. following the revelation that the german economy is almost stagnating. growth in the second quarter came in at 0.1%. it had to have been expected that there would be some modest growth but near flat-line. that's a shocker for the markets and paris up the worse escaped by london and sdplur i can. they're off in the case of the ftse andrew. yes, charles. the german numbers nicked the end of the trading center here in asia, particularly hong kong. the markets closing mixed. there were earlier gains but initial confidence after the 200-point pop on the dow gave way to worries about what's happening in europe. the leaders of france and germ mi discussing the euro zone's continuing debt crisis. let's go to an asian business analyst looking at the numbers. we can't have too much good economic news for too long this these troubled times. back to normal. >> that definitely is what was happening. major market hugging the flat line for most of the day. not straying past the half percent mark either up or down. the nikkei shook off earlier gains to close just a quarter percent higher. construction-related stocks like heavy machinery and bidders were the top ten gainers. these are domestic sen trick stocks. exporters are worried about the strong end that's been trading at 76, 86 to the dollar for pretty much the hold day much the hang seng ending a quarter of a percent down. we saw this go down in the last few hours of trade. oil, banking and shipping stocks in the top five gainers here. that jump there in u.s. markets on monday helping to boost a little bit confidence. the demand for resources as well as transport might increase. we're looking at cnooc. bank of china, costco pacific closing up between one and a half and 3%. the shanghai composite was down by .7 of a percent after a pullback of bank stocks. beijing is trying to keep inflation down and growth up at the same time. finally, the asx 200 almost down about a percent there. it opened up but then fell throughout the day. earnings reports today were center stage. west pac, australia's second largest bank closed down nearly 4.5%. it announced a 10% in cash profit but that missed estimates and investors weren't too happy about that. qantas, too popped to nearly 3%. but the national carrier actually e-raced all of the gains. qantas as you mentioned announced it's going to set two new asia-based airlines. flat market. we'll see what happens in europe and blowback from there. >> watch what happens with mr. sarkozy and ms. merkel. i want to come back to china for a minute. one of the chinese newspapers was talking about the need to let the chinese currency continue to appreciate. what are we going to see there? >> the quick answer to that is that we could see the u.n. appreciate more than the last few years. take a look at the gains in the yen over the past year. this time today in 2010, it was trading at this much. one u.s. dollar to 6.8. today it's trading at this amount, 6.38. this is more than a 6% appreciation but some critics are saying that the u.n. is undervalued by as much as 40%. the newspaper that you mentioned, the china securities journal is advocating widening this current trading ban. it's a range of half a percent on any given day. earlier i spoke with a few china economists and they said it's conceivable beijing could widen the ban to perhaps .75% or maybe even 1%. also the chief regional economist of credit sweets, he told me that beijing's main motivation is to international lies the -- as the u.n. is also known china doesn't want to wake up and see the u.s. dollar or yen crumbled and some of them are seen as save havens. it could help protect china, with a bit more volatility as well as inflation. looking ahead, if this ban was widened, we could see the u.n. appreciate over the next 9 to 12 months. about 4%. will the ban be widened. no one knows except for the top leaders of china. >> interesting. it does make some sense as far as combatting inflation too which is a major issue in china. thank you. speaking of the appreciation, it is a key component to try to call the overheating economy and rising inflation as we were saying. one of the sectors in fear of overheating, in fact, many would say it has overheated is the property sector. tightening from beijing there is starting to take effect. one man who has worked china's real estate rise to his advantage, is vincent low e. it's one of the biggest foreign developers in china. now, i met him earlier and i began by asking how these five rate rises that we've seen in china so far, plus countless almost curbs on bank lending are affecting the mainland china property market. >> of course, trans section has dropped dramatically. but prices are holding firm. >> why is that? >> because basically there's no outlet for the money. the end of march, there's 77 trillion in the savings account in china. and these savings account all earning negative interest. >> this is exactly what the government wanted to tackle, high prices. what do they do now? >> well, right now it's not the prices are not coming down, but transaction volume is. with stringent measures that the government introduced, for example in beijing, you need to show five-year payment before you can buy a flat. in shanghai, every family is allowed one flat. what i've seen, which is quite ridiculous, three couples have gone through a divorce just to buy a flat. >> because you can only buy one property. they're divorced to buy a second property? >> yes. >> that gives you ideas, doesn't it? statistic i saw that last year i think the ten consecutive months, house prices in the 70 big cities increased by at least 9%. so there is a property price bubble in china, isn't this tl? >> i don't believe there's a bubble. because, first of all, there's a shortage of land. a shortage of properties in china. and then with the very high economic growth, disposable income are increasing significantly and what's important is there's no outlet for the money and then the china market is not overleveraged like in the west. we still have one-third of our buyers coming in to pay full cash. now, warren buffett has been making moves in the markets and he's speaking out about u.s. taxes of the we'll tell you who he says should pay more. here's a hint. he includes himself. luck? i don't trade on luck. i trade on fundamentals. analysis. information. i trade on tradearchitect. this is web-based trading, re-visualized. streaming, real-time quotes. earnings analysis. probability analysis: that's what opportunity looks like. it's all visual. intuitive. and it's available free, wherever the web is. this is how trade strategies are built. tradearchitect. only from td ameritrade. welcome to better trade commission free for 60 days when you open an account. welcome back. you're watching world business today. >> u.s. billionaire investor warren buffett shakes up his portfolio, people pay attention. the company he chairs bought 1.5 million shares of the discount retail chain dollar general for about $50 million. he also picked up about two million shares of the insurance data phone. it rose almost 5% on monday. that's not bad money for mr. buffet. he increased his considerable stake in wells fargo bank by almost ten million shares and almost doubled his holdings in master card. but buffet sold six million shares of the food giant kraft. he still holds more than 150 million shares of that company. of course, why not? because after all, companies whose products you understand and i don't imagine he understands food pretty well like the rest of us andrew. >> i know the way around chocolate bars since -- buying a discount rye tailer and a credit card operator. there's a theme going on there as the u.s. struggles with a much weaker economy. buffet has made billions about how he coaxes profits from his investments. now he's telling u.s. congress that it needs to coax more taxes out of rich people, including yes, himself. harry snow has the details. >> it didn't take long for president obama to start quoting warren buffett's call to tax the rich. >> warren buffett had an op-ed that he wrote today where he said we dpot to stop coddling billionaires like me. that's what warren buffett said. >> just as quickly as the president embraced buffet's call, pat buchanan dismissed it. >> why doesn't he send an example and send a check for $5 billion to the federal government. >> stop coddling the super rich op-ed, the billionaire investor said while he paid nearly $7 million in taxes last year, the percentage of his taxable income was less than the people in his office. that's because the super rich get tax breaks on capital gains and pay little in payroll taxes. so who are the wealthy? to hear president obama tell it, they make $200,000 a year or more. that would make up 3% of americans or four million people. go up the pay scale and according to the irs, those making $1 million or more, equal about 237,000 people. in the $10 million or more club, there are roughly 8,000 people. buffet wants higher taxes on those making one million or more. we asked robberton williams of the nonpartisan tax policy center for a scenario of what that would amount to. >> the example we looked at was raising the top tax rate on incomes over a million dollars. if we did that, we'd gain an additional about $34 billion in revenues this year or over a ten-year period, perhaps $350 billion. >> what about the effects of on the economy? williams says yes, the wealthy would spend less on goods and services and on investments. but. >> the investments they're making these days are government bonds not economic activity that generate jobs. neither their change in spending nor their change in investment behavior would likely have a very serious adverse effect on the economy. >> as this debate takes place, the tax policy center points out that revenue makes up under 15% of gdp. that's the lowest level it's been since the 1950s. mary snow, cnn, new york. that's how america's second richest man thinks washington should raise revenue and cut the deficit. seems straightforward, doesn't it? more straightforward than the position of those attacking that deficit under the current plan. that's because the 12 members of the so-called super committee whose job it is may find their own interests aren't always in alignment with those of the taxpayer as the campaign backers flex their muscles. lisa sylvester reports from washington. >> the congressional super committee of 12 has been tasked with slicing $1.5 trillion from the deficit. aside from feeling the pressure from their home state constituents, they are also under pressure from special interest groups. at&t and other wireless carriers, for example want the federal government to auction off valuable radio spectrum, arguing would be a great revenue generator for the federal government. it would also be hugely profitable to the communications companies desperate for more airwaves for the next generation of portable devices. three of the 12 members have received generous campaign contributions from at&t over the years. more than 77,000 to representative james clyburn. more than the 99,000 to fred upton and more than $53,000 to representative jeb hensarling. bill ellison is with the public watchdog group. the sunlight foundation. >> when you look around, there's a lot of different players, contributed to members of congress who have a real stake in the outcome of the negotiations. >> the anti-tax group club for growth is the number one campaign contributor to two members of the committee. senator pat toomey who used to head the organization has received more than $850,000. club for growth has given senator john kyle more than $155,000. wall street contributed more than any other industry to the campaigns of the 12 congressional members. multinational corporations like boeing, microsoft and ford motor company have figured prominently also. >> at&t, general electric, major multinational corporations have a lot at stake in this decision. because if there are tax breaks that are pulled back or if there are tax increases that could mean a big dent in potential profits. >> whirlpool receives a reported $300 million in tax credits from the federal government for increasing production of high-efficiency appliances. the credit, which is set to expire in december, accounts for about a third of whirlpool's earnings this year. whirlpool was co-founded by representative fred upton's grandfather, also one of the 12 on the super committee. democratic representative chris van hollins top two campaign contributors are high-powered d.c. and lobbying firms. >> are they beholden to special interests? >> all the donors have a certain level of access to the members of congress, especially the big donors. members know who the biggest donors are and they'll be listening to these people. >> then there's the revolving door. this is something quite common in washington, d.c. senator max baucus and senator john kerry both have about a dozen former staffers registered lobbyists according to the sunlight foundation. that's going to make it easy for them to pick up the phone and talk to former colleagues. if you look at the campaign contribution list who is not well-represented among the 12 on the committee? the defense companies. they have a lot at stake here. lisa sylvester, cnn, washington. well, some pretty profits have been unveiled by the cosmetics company estee lauder. we have an exclusive interview just ahead. imagine... one scooter or power chair that could improve your mobility and your life. one medicare benefit that, with private insurance, may entitle you to pay little to nothing to own it. one company that can make it all happen ... your power chair will be paid in full. the scooter store. hi i'm doug harrison. we're experts at getting you the power chair or scooter you need. i didn't pay a penny out of pocket for my power chair. with help from the scooter store, medicare and my insurance covered it all. call the scooter store for free information today. live from cnn hong kong and london. you're watching world business today. the cosmetics giant estee lauder, sales fell 7% on monday after it made a forecast for its 2012 fiscal year earnings. it's been a successful 2011 fiscal year, though. the company announced fourth quarter earnings of $41.1 million, up 72%. in a television exclusive estee lauder ceo told felicia taylor how new products and markets are giving sales a boost. >> here we are at estee lauder headquarters in new york on fifth avenue with the ceo. fa briz yoe freda after having reported record sales for the company. advanced night repair is a leading product. tell me why this is special and where the growth is. >> it's a great technology and it's a base product for the routine of every woman around the world, particularly in china. a lot of chinese woman are really liking this product. they call the brown bottle. >> and it is. but what about growth in china. clearly that's an important region going forward for you. what are your expectations down the road? >> we'll continue to invest in china and grow this market. this market is one of the fastest growing market on the dploeb. lot of potential. chinese consumers are traveling the world and they consume a lot of the product made in mainland china also in travel experience. it has a positive effect on the entire business dploeblly. >> tell me about the travel arena. i know that's an important growth area. people in duty-free arenas buying product, right? >> absolutely. china retail is a -- it's growing and successful around the world. people travel more. they spend more time in the airports. and importantly, the shopping experience in the airport is improving. so there is more and more people buying in retail. >> what about lat inamerica, where is your greatest growth there in. >> in the makeup, particularly in brazil. >> what have you done in department stores to help attract customers back to the makeup counter that might be different than what we saw in 2008 and 2009? >> what we have done is first of all, we're counting as i said a big innovation, products which are so important to consumers that are attracting new users to the store. we support this unique innovation with more aggressive advertising. television, be it on -- the consumer come to the store and they find an amazing service quality and thanks to this quality, we can customize the product to their needs and they discover the rest of the line and the brand. >> looking forward, though, you have changed your range in terms of the growth outlook. tell me what that is and why you made the decision. >> we have basically -- we assume to continue growing much more than the market. so our assumption for the next years is continue consistently to deal market share. we operate, however, getting a range to the market out there today because at the top of the range is our continuous growth as planned and the bottom of the range, there is the -- that the current in the financial markets will create some soft ening in consumption. i don't know. i'm sure you can dpes for me. >> i'm not playing that guessing game for any amount of money. fabrizio freda there, the boss of estee lauder talking to us. last look at the markets in europe. ugly sight. off by 2.3% for the dax. 1.8% for the paris can you remember rant. what's triggering this. it turns out in the second quarter, german growth, flat lined. the german consumer is totally out gas. this confirmed the expectations, the expected modest growth. instead, we're looking at the euro zone's economic powerhouse really running almost on empty. >> when you combine that with the french, who is flat lining also, you have at least half of the euro zone economy there. let's take a quick look at asia. that german news came out just as hong kong was closing. it's sort of flipping -- hong kong was in the red. but it finished down a quarter. australia down by .8. the markets have had three days of gains. nikkei continuing, up by a quarter of one percent. that's it for this edition of world business today. thanks so much for joining us. i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >> i'm charles hodson in london. you're watching cnn, which is the world's news leader. goodbye for now.