Personal consumption remains broadly flat while household income has improved a little. Housing investment declined somewhat in the most recent month, as starts of owner-occupied single houses, after rising for the past few months, fell. Business investment continues to rise, led by buoyant outlays by manufacturing firms. Public investment remains lower than in a year earlier. Export volume flattened, and has remained broadly unchanged.
Industrial production continues to rise steadily.
Although the slack in the labour market has diminished little as exemplified by the stubbornly rather high unemployment rate, improvements continue to be seen in the growing number of job offers and in the rising trend of overtime hours worked. Corporate profits continue to rise markedly. Business confidence continues to improve slightly, with, however, some deterioration foreseen for the immediate future. On the other hand, the number of business failures has stayed somewhat high, with gross debt of failed firms rising. The Government aims to sustain domestic activities so as to establish an autonomous recovery path, and to make bold reforms of economic structure for the 21 st century.