On the other hand, business fixed investment is on a gradual recovery trend, albeit showing some fluctuations, reflecting the improvement in corporate profits. Net exports are virtually flat. Looking at the economic outlook, it is expected that the uptrend in exports and production will gradually resume, and this in turn will initiate the momentum for an economic recovery.
This reflected expectations that growth rates in overseas economies will accelerate in the second half of 2003 partly due to diminishing uncertainty over the situation in Iraq and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).