Amid such firmness maintained in the corporate sector, the improving trend in the overall economy, including the household sector, is expected to become quite evident in the first half of 2022, when the impact of COVID-19 and supply-side constraints is projected to wane.
Under these circumstances, Japan's real GDP is expected to generally recover to the pre-pandemic level (or the 2019 level) in the first half of 2022, while lagging somewhat behind the recovery in the United States and Europe.