Attacks. Hackers attacked the u. S. Militarys twitter account. Welcome to countdown. I am mark barton. I am anna edwards. I am manus cranny. Beats his rival, the award for the best Football Player in the world. Greece doesnt have much time, the words of the greek finance minister speaking exclusively to bloomberg just 12 days before the general election. He has given us a wide ranging interview on his nations prospects and the challenge posed, a snap general election on january 25 and early polls show the antiausterity party is the favorite. Alexis had promised to write off some of the 322 billion euro debt. Greece could be forced to leave the euro and samaras was to start his own deal. Wants to strike his own deal. For more on greece less give it lets give it to Elliott Gotkine lets been speaking to the finance minster. Good morning to you. It was a confident and apparently relaxed finance minister i met yesterday morning. Perhaps, after the elections something less stressful to do other than being finance minister. Very much focus on elections on january 25 and the opposition, still living in the opinion poll. The finance minister told me it must not renege on greeces obligations. Has to oprah by the obeyed by the commitments that greece has signed up for. Greece has received a huge amount of money just from the european, 195 billion euros and made commitments. When we made those commitments we were greeks. Were not a particular party. This has to be understood. After the elections, have greeks stopped paying taxes, contributions or mortgages since they knew a snap election was coming . Is very natural before elections to observe some kind of a freeze, some people hope that a new government when come and absolve them from their debt payments. Or others entrepreneurs postponed contracts. The countries have stalled a bit. Once the elections are over, i think there is demand and the country recovers. Can you quantify the drop in the tax take . Is it likely to derail the greek budget and the greek budget for 2014 had a big cushion. The target was for 1. 5 of primary surplus area up until early december, we were forecasting a primary surplus of 1. 8 . At least three decibels that provide enough cushion what ever miss we had it is not going to effect the eventual target. Is it possible other parts in term of the Economic Outlook changes once they come into office . And one said they wanted to write off the debt and maybe not commanded if he gets into power. Well, the responsibility for ever runs in the country so i assume it will eventually prevail. The question is, how quickly . Greece does not have much time. Theres a deadline of february 28 for finishing the review with the imf a European Partners and acb. And whoever runs in the government has to have in mind. How many greeks believe the talk of a potential exit from the euro is a bluff a way for the government perhaps to persuade them to vote for the incumbent record than the opposition austerity . Do you think the threat of an exit israel . Greek, as you well know, do want to stay within the euro area. More than 3 4 of the greeks was surveyed said yes, i want to stick with the euro area. They know the euro area brings a lot of benefits. They shape of the country. They give a future to the economy, to is politics. Now leaving the euro area is not necessarily a bluff, and accident could happen. And the idea is to avoid it. It was a wide ranging interview and we sat down with the finance minister from us and our. Some of the highlights you will hear, some other things hes said about Bank Withdrawals which were about 3 billion euros have continued in germany. He said there will be no more austerity for at least the next nine months and it went from the current government would give a huge boost to the economy. I asked him how toughest job was a refused to draw on that. Hes a took three days over the summer and christmas and nothing keys him at wake at night so he gets a good night sleep. Back to you. The good advice. We will continue to questions of whether greek can stumble out of the euro. Well have more from the exclusive interview with the greek finance minister throughout the morning. Stay with bloomberg for more on the greek election. The pulse will speak to a recent candidate. That is coming up at 9 30. The u. S. Central commands twitter account has been hacked by a group to said to be with the islamic state. A very good morning to you, hans nichols. Was anything classified leaks . No, no classified materials were compromised and days that yes, it was an embarrassment. They sent a twitter account was down for more than 30 minutes for you to was down for longer and that is you. Time for company news. Air france will pass savings from lower fuel prices off to customers according to the ceo. He spoke to bloomberg in an exclusive interview. It is true that do not forget the dollar is stronger compared to that euro which is impacting the low fuel price. And which is worldwide and a part of the benefit we have with the lower fuel prices. A british air was on her desk British Airways owner British Airways owner rebuffed previous approaches according to people familiar with the matter. The proposed offer of up to two euro 50 per share could happen as early this week. There is no final decision has been made. Stay with bloomberg with more news from the airline industry. Airbus on his performance and forecast for this year and orders expected to fall on lower fuel Prices Higher interest rates. We will speak to the ceo at 11 30 a. M. U. K. Time. Nuclear management to be stripped of his contract to clean up their Nuclear Waste site according to the Financial Times which cites people in government. The authority is expected to take over from the consortium which is made up of u. S. Engineering company, urf, a french company, and a british company. The ecb is threatening to choke off support to the lenders. The direct of a greek exit continues to haunt greek. Lets get more from brandon. Thanks as always for coming to see us. Would it be catastrophic if we were talking about it . Know, a very different situation from a few years ago. One might wonder if chancellor merkel had more flexible attitude back he has now. If not advantage she has now. What were talking about is how much of that is going to be repaid under different scenarios. And the element of doing negotiations and that will be the risk of capital flight out of greece. Compared to any euro [indiscernible] there are two issues at play. This was our bloomberg source said. Drive he may be forced to warn the greek banks they will withhold the special funding that they deliver. And the head of one party saint greece cannot repay the debt on the fiscal waterboarding of one party is saying greece cannot repay the debt on the fiscal waterboarding. What it needs to get here . How much he needs to come through . The state to get the greek government to agree quickly is if you do not agree, we are not going to lend you the money to tide over any capital flight issues. You could be forced out and that the and of your. The danger of this is ecb officials eu officials probably do not want greece to leave area greece itself, under any political scenario probably does not want to pull out either. Using this at the bargaining counter, it it is a danger of miscalculation and outofcontrol and having a great accident. Ecb qe is another tawdry station along the way as european monitoring goes to its original starting point of optimism and hope regarding european management in the duration, pessimism and despair. You know who wrote that, brandon it was you. Really, that a bad . When we look at the ecb qe, it is very late in the day. The big monetary experiment which has been going on for several years. That is had is that impact on various markets and some sort of stimulus effect on some parts of the global economy, the u. S. Economy, which is beginning to unwind and other things which are going into reverse. Ecb qe at this stage is not going to add a lot and the main effect of ecb qe is on the Exchange Rate is what we see. It is an attempt to drive the euro down which has been fairly successful in terms of speculation about it. That is it. It is an oldfashioned currency war captain. Remind us what we should be afraid of in terms of deflation. One of the board member saying yesterday we have to not take too long and take deflation risks very seriously. At the same time, he and knowledge were lower prices that he acknowledged we need to look he acknowledged lower prices were we to postpone this. You look at charts regular declining prices and strong Economic Growth and falling prices mainly reflect a big decline in Commodity Prices asked as productivity. Theres absolutely nothing in that sort of price decline which is going to hold back Economic Growth. If you look at that history, monetary history, you have long periods where prices are falling. And you have had very good economic background against it. Brendan brown, thank you. He stayed with us. 20 minutes past. And little bit of breaking news on the energy markets. This for the First Time Since the 2009. We are waiting for inventory as well. It is on the bottom of your screen. 40 oil is what goldman that said the market is Goldman Sachs is what Goldman Sachs is needed. Brendan brown is back. Thank you for staying with us. Goldman wrote a note said the new royal order is a new royal order, are we in a new zone . How do you look at the oil market . We are in a big cutback of investment spending. Oil was the center of massive speculation as result of the fed qb policy that drove oil prices, Commodity Prices, and a lot of excess exuberance and the Oil Extraction industry. Anything to do with oil. That over, investment now is reflected in southern decline in profits and investment spending will be cut back in those areas. The u. S. Economy which was gaining from all of the expenditure and transportation equipment. We are going to see a decline in the whole range of apex particularly in the u. S. And other countries that are energy specialist. In a way that is reflected in the bond market. Bond yields are coming down to reflect there is going to be a shortfall in Capital Spending and a slave in a row role in the 19th century, a big correction of investment. And is going to be like the train railroads in the 19th century, a big correction of investment. We will get to a higher level of oil prices in the next five years. But producing exactly with this one happen is foolish errand. [indiscernible] what is the significance . We should drop the 2 inflation target altogether. Is carney secure . What i would not think so. There you go. Thank you so much. Brendan brown t here. Greecess finance minister. Stay with us. Welcome to countdown. The yen rising for the 30 day is the u. S. Dollar. Shoulder to shoulder with the germany. 0 and even negative at certain times of the trading day. We are at the zero and negative rates in japan. Inflation fears, market risk equity market risk for why is that yan arising for the Third Straight day . There are multiple reasons. They said they have not been short yen for a while and the oil price pushed japan a trade of to positive they call 1. 20 after the end of the First Quarter. They are calling the dollar yen lower by 1. 20. The most accurate forecast on our forecast to board and bloomberg last year. Austin dollar at the bottom of your screen. This is giving back some of the Australian Dollar gains we saw. Exports the. A 10 rise. Exports beat estimates. You may see a big move on the Commodity Currencies bactrim. Thats why put the dollar against the aussie dollar in there. I will come back to that. Canadian dollar target there. With actually shown it the wrong way. We will take off that graphic. Lets take a look at the Bloomberg Top stories. U. S. Oil has been trading below fortified out a barrel for the First Time Since 2009. Stockpiles will increase. The french magazine charlie abdo have dealt Charlie Hebdo is planning to print 3 million of its copies. The cover will depend the prophet mohammed with you are forgiven. It will be released in 16 languages. President obama has proposed legislation to protect consumers and students under cyberattacks. It was announced just hackers were attacking the twitter account of the u. S. Militarys central command. They posted personal information and what appears to be military plans. The Department Said it amounted to a crime. Indonesian search teams have found the cockpit voice recorder from air asia flight 8501 according to officials. The flight data recorder has already been recovered. The airbus plane was lost in bad weather over the jobless the java sea. Greece and the exclusive less than two days before the general election on january 25, the countrys finance ministers spoke about a greek exit. I think definitely that 2015 is different from 2012. Europe has build defenses against a country leaving the euro area. So greek politicians understand this and they understand they cannot threaten the rest with their own exit. This is not a bargaining chip on our side. Greek debt is about 170 . One of the policies is to get some of Debt Forgiveness to get some of that original. Would you concede that they have a point that the deck is uncontainable debt is unsustainable . Instead of asking for a haircut which is not acceptable to the European Partners they gave us the loan, we ought to ask for an extension of that loan that implies the duration will go further out. Give us a lot more breathing space for the economy to grow. We ought to at for transforming the rate into a fixed rate debt. In other words, tech advantage of the current liquidity, plenty liquidity in the international scene. The availability of liquidity and transforms some of that into fixed rate. If you are still finance minister after the election, will you push for longer maturities of greece current debt and fixing the inflation rate . And these are the government. And the loan current the Current Program was extended. Is that sufficient for greece to strike a deal over a replacement . Well, the elections took away some time. But we feel if this government continues it will manage to strike a deal and principal before the february euro meeting. I think the bureaucracy can afterwards can close the deal. A conversation taking place that perhaps further if the opposition wins and they do not have the knowledge and the experience in negotiations and they have certain ideas of their own, i think it is prudent for them to ask for an extension. If we get them sometime to manage and close the review. The current government remains in place, no extension needed but the opposition, it would be prudent . Yes. The current government could manage. How tough it is your job . It is difficult to make an assessment. All i can say is i only took three days of vacation in the summer and three days of vacation at christmas. What keeps you awake at night . Nothing cues me awake. Do you think, oh gosh, what happens in greece linzie euro or if we miss the deadline . No, we have things under control. We work hard to build to sleep at night. Quick that was greeces finance minister speaking exclusively to bloomberg. Christmas 2014 was the worst year in u. K. Retail according to the latest data from the british retail consortium. We get details from the big players. Morrison and asos. Lets look at what 2015 has in store for retail. Joining us is charles. Pascoe is pulling back. Thats tesco is pulling back and reviewing strategy. What gives . Big box big store, little store. What is the strategy . Little stores are into especially food. If you are consumer you go to a small store and you spend less and everybody wants to do that. Secondly, the demographics work that way. Populations are aging around the world and within japan which is the Oldest Society in the world, we have seen in a big way. All other people do not need to buy so much so they go to smaller stores. What about a look at the stores . Will we see the Retail Industry revamping . Particularly in the most fashionable areas really cross the border as we have seen in food, apparel and clothing, we see people with bigger, smarter flagships to get feedback a reason to get away from their tablet. Are you going to get away from your tablet to go to a rather dreary store that does not have much doubt . Much stock . When you go to something that is fully redone and has a larger stock . What about suppliers . I think wouldve seen this in quite big ways. Sebastian james is a really neat and the [indiscernible] not only do you buy something for less money that you tend to buy the cheapest in the range. If youre going to buy the curved tv, they want you to buy the best curve tv. And when you go to the store, you see why you should pay the extra 400 pounds for that. You can see the features. Supplies are very keen to get people to buy the best. Manus, did he go to the store when he bought his tv . I wanted to the store and i like to touch things and feel things and get a good look. You have to put your proverbial on it. Thats a shocker. Last year was a shocker in terms of the phone industry. Is tescos shocker, this years misery . Is difficult to say. In the u. S. , we start to see very low scale store closures and three or 400 stores. And we could see another wave of this smaller, less productive outlets. Tesco may be started that and we can see a spread in a much wider way. What about Management Change . There are a few i can think of area think of how they might let the top of their game and perhaps, commitments missed in terms of delivering the returns to the business. Is clearly both strategic and operational issues that have hit some the businesses. We are getting to the moment where if youre not performing operationally there needs to be a change for we saw i