A recovery in corporate profits reflecting improvement on both the supply and demand fronts, as well as the implementation of various economic stimulus measures, is projected to gradually boost business fixed investment and private consumption, both of which have been relatively weak recently. In sum, the Bank's baseline scenario is that Japan's economic conditions are likely to improve gradually.
However, the outlook is still attended by a high level of uncertainty. Needless to say, the most considerable risk factor behind the outlook is future developments in overseas economies; as I mentioned earlier, these pose upside as well as downside risks to the Japanese economy.