On balance, the economy has been performing as well as can be expected in this difficult global environment and after a period of domestic overheating. While growth was modest last year, nonetheless, the economy has retained the substantial gains in living standards and employment achieved since 1994.
The investment outlook also continues to strengthen and is supported by an ongoing need to modernise the capital stock after years of subdued investment, as well as by very favourable financing conditions, an improvement in profitability and solid demand. Since we announced our policy measures in June 2014, financial conditions have eased considerably.