Although I am not able to make an assertive judgment, let me try to present some facts related to the question based on four yardsticks. The first yardstick is whether the growth of monetary aggregates such as money supply has increased.
The annual growth rate of M2+CDs was at the 2% level in March last year and has been at the 3% level in recent months. This marginal change reflects a shift of funds into cash and demand deposits after the massive redemption of investment trusts following the failure of Enron.