I will now turn to the corporate sector (Chart 4). Exports are likely to increase, mainly for automobile- and digital-related goods, as overseas economies continue recovering and as supply-side constraints dissipate. With regard to corporate profits, the Financial Statements Statistics of Corporations by Industry, Quarterly show that current profits have marked a new record high for fiscal 2021.
Although raw material cost increases are projected to exert downward pressure, corporate profits are likely to be at high levels on the whole, albeit with variation across industries and firm sizes, on the back of an increase in domestic and external demand and partly also of the effects of the yen's depreciation.