Share Sounds presented by Juliette Foster

Retail sales fell at the fastest pace over the last year since January 2012, thats according to the CBI's latest monthly Distributive Trends Survey. Analysts had hoped to see a pick up in growth in the sector and the figures come in the same week as high street retailers BHS and Austin Reed entered administration. Joining Juliette Foster to shed more light on this research is Anna Leach, Head of Economic Analysis at the CBI.

Share Radio's Patrick Jones catches up with our man in Hong Kong, Finbarr Bermingham, Asia Editor of the Global Trade Review, to talk about the future for the Chinese economy considering it's colossal debt levels, collaboration between global banks and what is the 'ISDS' clause within TTIP?

Well let's stay with politics and events north of the border where Scotland's Labour party has unveiled its manifesto for the May 5th elections. Party leader Kezia Dugdale said the document was a "return to the party's roots" and that Labour was the only party "offering an alternative to austerity". Yet with the Scottish National Party enjoying a 30 point lead in opinion polls, can the manifesto woo back those Labour supporters who've defected to the nationalists? Juliette Foster is joined on the phone by our man in Scotland Maurice Smith.

This week experts from Greenwich University's Political Economy Research Centre will publish a report which include proposals to strengthen trade unions and increase the statutory minimum wage in Britain and Europe. Similar themes will be addressed in May when a conference hosted by the University, will argue the case for raising public and private investment to stop Europe lagging behind the US and Japanese economies. The reports are published as the debate over the UK's position in Europe gathers more heat in the run up to June's referrendum, and as questions are raised about the future of think tanks like the "Political Economy Research Centre", which get some or all of their funding from Europe. What future do they have if Britain leaves the EU and what could happen to their research? In the studio are Professor Ozlem Onaran and Doctor Giovanni Cozzi, from the Political Economy Research Centre, and Professor John Weeks, Share Radio's regular economics commentator.

Have you ever wondered why some people get what they want while others have to struggle? Are they phenomenally talented or do they have the knack of being in the right place at the right time for good things to happen? Surprisingly luck - and to a certain extent talent - don't have much to do with it. How far you go in life and whether you achieve your potential, depends on how you think and approach situations. So how easy is it to change the thought and behaviour patterns inherited from childhood, into something positive and beneficial? According to Jez Rose, an author and award winning behaviour specialist, anyone can do it....just as long as you follow a few rules outlined in his new book "Flip The Switch". Jez Rose joins Juliette Foster to discuss the book in more detail.

Good afternoon and welcome to today's edition of The Apprentice Investor. Regular listeners to the show will know that our Apprentices are five members of the Share Radio team who've each been given fifteen thousand pounds of virtual money to build their own individual share portfolios. They have a minimum of eight stocks, which they've been buying and selling through The Share Centre. So are those portfolios bulging with profit...or debt? Apprentices Olivia Demetriades and Valsa de Winter are in the studio along with Ed Bowsher, Share Radio's Senior Analyst.

This is Conversations From Africa with Chris Bishop, Managing Editor of Forbes Africa Magazine, & Share Radio's Patrick Jones. This week we return to the 'Once Empowered, Always Empowered' landmark court case for South African mining, the ex-finance minister for South Africa and his new job, the strength of the rand and how it manages to remain a bastion among emerging market currencies, Starbucks finally coming to South Africa & more.

The world's financial markets got off to a wobbly start earlier in the year as fears over the health of the global economy - and China in particular - punched a hole in the value of sectors that traditionally perform well. However it wasn't all bad news as biotechnology companies held their ground and they've continued to go from strength to strength, delivering impressive returns to investors. Carl Harald Janson is the manager of the "International Biotechnology Trust" and he joins Juliette Foster in the studio.

Investment Perspectives: What is fact and what is fiction? That question has never been more pertinent as the UK weighs up the arguments ahead of the In/Out referendum on June 23rd. Rathbones, the UK provider of personalised investment management and wealth management services, has published a new report that specifically looks to address five myths around key areas of the Brexit debate: immigration, trade, financials, public finance, and foreign investment. Share Radio's Michael Considine discussed some of them with Ed Smith, Asset Allocation Strategist at Rathbones and began by asking him whether the arguments against immigration stood up to investigation.

For those who've yet to decide which way they're going to vote in the EU referendum, the claims and counter claims from the rival camps are probably about as helpful as driving through fog without lights or a Sat Nav. So have George Osborne's Treasury backed findings made the road ahead any clearer....or worse? Juliette Foster is joined in the studio by Professor John Weeks, Share Radio's regular economics commentator.