Private consumption will also continue to be weak along with deteriorating employment and income conditions and the more cautious consumer sentiment. Government spending is projected to follow a downtrend at the time when the substantial decline in exports and production is negatively affecting private consumption through the decrease in household income.
When looking at the outlook for economic activity and prices using the ESP Forecast Survey, which compiles economists’ forecasts, the outlook for the real GDP growth rate for fiscal 2013 has improved substantially from 1.54 percent as of October 2012 to 2.75 percent as of July 2013, and the outlook for the year-on-year rate of change in consumer prices has also increased from 0.11 percent to 0.36 percent during the same period.