Needless to say, banks are making efforts to improve profitability of their lending activities by enhancing the credit quality of unprofitable but viable companies through various supports. Nevertheless, there are a substantial number of non-viable companies. Furthermore, making progress in structural reforms in the economy and industries means, looking from the other side, a reduction of banks' unprofitable loans and non-performing assets.
The second factor expected to contribute favourably to growth is a rise in exports. Historically, export performance has been closely related to cost competitiveness, in particular unit labor costs relative to trading partners. In fact, over the period 2000–2009, wage competitiveness has declined by about 25%.