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Reacting to the oil price slump Saudi Arabia's King announces his 2016 budget: spending cuts, a 40% hike in petrol and a drive to raise revenue from taxes and privatisation. As the Saudi budget deficit reaches a record $98 billion for 2015, we hear from Richard Thompson, editorial director of the Middle East Economic Digest. The chairman of one of China's largest state-owned mobile operators, China Telecom, is being investigated by the country's anti-corruption watchdog - we hear from Danny Vincent, the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s correspondent in Beijing. The foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan have reached an agreement to resolve the long-standing row over Korean sex slaves known as ‘comfort women’ during the Second World War. Rana Mitter, director of the China Centre at Oxford University, explains why an agreement has now been reached after so many years. Plus, Susannah Streeter explores the ways in which Britain is trying to cut down on wasted food and we hear about the European ski resorts coming to terms with a lack of snow. Our guests throughout the programme are Canadian based entrepreneur and strategist Saqib Qureshi and Deb Price, World News editor at The Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong.

(Picture: A Saudi woman looks out over Riyadh from The Kingdom Tower. Credit: Jordan Pix/Getty Images)