Judging by the data now available, the world economy remains on the road to recovery. Growth in the USA, in the euro area, in the accession countries and in emerging East Asia is positive at present, and there are good prospects that the upswing will become stronger. We should remember that the fundamentals in most of these countries are supportive.
After all, as Japan’s economy, with its potential growth rate of nearly 0 percent, is so fragile as to be liable to post negative growth even because of trivial external factors such as weather conditions, I expect that its growth is highly likely to remain sluggish in the future while being susceptible to developments in the global financial markets and overseas economies.