By firm size, while corporate profits of large firms have been on a rising trend, those of small and medium-sized firms have been more or less flat. The business fixed investment stance has been active in  1  both manufacturing and nonmanufacturing, due in part to pent-up demand for investments that had been restrained during the pandemic. 2.
Outlook Next, I will turn to the outlook for economic activity. Economies in Europe and the United States are expected to slow against the background of significant policy interest rate hikes by central banks to contain rapid inflation (Chart 5).