who joins us from washington. hello, welcome to the programme. the news emerging from the steel plant in mariupol is hard to verify, but it does seem tonight from the reporting of several news agencies, that the most severely wounded ukrainians have been taken out of the plant. 40 wounded ukrainians that need urgent treatment and we are told around a dozen buses have left the plant in the last few hours. the russian ministry of defence said those troops that do surrender would be taken to hospital in a nearby town, in separatist held ukraine, where they will then become prisoners of war. we will keep across that and bring you details as we get it. meanwhile there is some evidence emerging that vladimir putin is directly overseeing battle plans for ukraine. western intelligence sources believe the russian president, together with his military chief general garasimov, are intervening in day to day tactical operations and are making decisions that would normally be made by morej
Well, the economy is struggling. Im not gloomy. Ijust propose to look to what we were expecting exactly one year ago. So, beginning of october 2022, we had a double digit inflation. We were expecting recession. And indeed we were also concerned about Energy Supply blackouts because, of course, leaving the russian fossil fuels was not at all an easy story. So if we want to look to the optimistic side of the moon, i think we would say that, yes, we avoided recession. Yes, we have now inflation at 4. 3 , which is very far from the double digit inflation one year ago. And the economy is still growing. But, of course, you are right, the economy is struggling because very low growth. How long with this slow growth. That is the point, isnt it . Low growth is your problem. The imf has reduced Growth Forecasts across the European Union down to less than 1 , 0. 8 for the year. There are some important countries, no more important country than germany, which are really struggling to deliver any g
Gloom, they said, is now spreading across the continent. Youre economy commissioner. The European Economy is struggling. Are you gloomy . Well, the economy is struggling. Im not gloomy. Ijust propose to look to what we were expecting exactly one year ago. So, beginning of october 2022, we had a double digit inflation. We were expecting recession. And indeed we were also concerned about Energy Supply blackouts because, of course, leaving the russian fossil fuels was not at all an easy story. So if we want to look to the optimistic side of the moon, i think we would say that, yes, we avoided recession. Yes, we have now inflation at 4. 3 , which is very far from the double digit inflation one year ago. And the economy is still growing. But, of course, you are right, the economy is struggling because very low growth. How long with this slow growth. That is the point, isnt it . Low growth is your problem. The imf has reduced Growth Forecasts across the European Union down to less than 1 , 0
The European Economy is struggling. Are you gloomy . Well, the economy is struggling. Im not gloomy. Ijust propose to look to what we were expecting exactly one year ago. So, beginning of october 2022, we had a double digit inflation. We were expecting recession. And indeed we were also concerned about Energy Supply blackouts because, of course, leaving the russian fossil fuels was not at all an easy story. So if we want to look to the optimistic side of the moon, i think we would say that, yes, we avoided recession. Yes, we have now inflation at 4. 3 , which is very far from the double digit inflation one year ago. And the economy is still growing. But, of course, you are right, the economy is struggling because very low growth. How long with this slow growth. That is the point, isnt it . Low growth is your problem. The imf has reduced Growth Forecasts across the European Union down to less than 1 , 0. 8 for the year. There are some important countries, no more important country than
welcome to bbc news broadcasting to viewers in the uk and around the world. we begin in italy, where president biden and ukraine s leader volodymyr zelensky have signed a ten year security agreement following the g7 s approval of a plan to use profits from seized russia assets to fund kyiv s war effort. joe biden said it would include intelligence sharing, troop training, adhering to nato standards and investment in ukraine s industrial base to make more weapons. mr zelensky described it as a bridge towards nato membership. the g7 deal sees a loan of $50 billion sent to ukraine. the group leaders agreed it showed moscow that ukraine s allies weren t backing down and president putin couldn t simply sit the war out. back in 2022, two days after russia s invasion, members of the g7 european union worked together to freeze $280 billion in russian central bank funds outside of russia. i m very pleased to share that this week, this week, the g7 signed a plan to finalise, unlock,