Looking at domestic demand, public investment is expected to continue trending upward supported by the supplementary budget for fiscal 2012 under the emergency economic measures, the budget for fiscal 2013 with higher weight on public investment, and the increased budget for reconstruction-related spending. Housing investment showed negative growth in the April-June quarter in the GDP statistics.
However, the number of housing starts, a leading indicator of housing investment, increased clearly by 9.3 percent in the AprilJune quarter from the previous quarter.