In October, as money market conditions relaxed after successfully passing the September-end, the half-year book closing, the outstanding balance has declined from its peak but still stays at far above six trillion yen, the level before the terrorist attacks.
Although it is still early days, there have been encouraging signs of a pickup in Canadian productivity growth this past year. I see no reason why Canada cannot benefit from a process similar to the one that has been at work in the United States. However, the extent of any future gains in our productivity is still difficult to gauge at this point.