The pressure on various economic entities to adjust their balance sheets has more or less disappeared since the beginning of 2000. However, the prolonged period of weak domestic demand has been compounded by the recent onset of population decline, pushing down economic entities’ expectations for economic growth and forestalling forward-looking expenditure.
The Lehman shock in 2008 dealt another serious blow to demand and its impact continues to this day. One reason that supply capacity has not been sufficiently adjusted despite stagnant demand is that, as a result of various regulations and protection measures, factors of production have remained in areas from which demand has shifted away.