In other words, while, from the demand side, growth in consumer demand is likely to be moderate given the slow pace of the flow of income from the corporate sector to the household sector, supply is likely to increase given the rise in imports due to economic globalization coupled with new entrants coming into the market as a result of deregulation.
Looking at firms' perception of resource utilization, an indicator for supply and demand conditions, the weighted average of the diffusion indices of production capacity and employment conditions in the Tankan (Short-Term Economic Survey of Enterprises in Japan) suggests that the pace of improvement in resource utilization in consumption-related industries, such as retailing and services, is slower than the average for all industries.