While this situation is largely due to the fact that the recent improvement in corporate profits has been supported by temporary factors, I believe that it also is attributable to firms' assessment that the domestic market has not yet improved sufficiently.
Annual real GDP growth is projected to lie in the range of 2.4% to 2.8% in 2007, and be between 1.5% and 2.5% in 2008, and between 1.6% and 2.6% in 2009.