One big question for the coming months and years is whether credit demand has been artificially suppressed for two years by the unprecedented provision of direct grant and wage subsidy support of the Government. If this proves to be the case, one may expect a pick-up in demand for bank loans upon the removal of those supports. We will be closely monitoring these issues.
Moving now to the topic of investment, both the ESRI and EIB papers provide a wealth of insight. We have learned today that, as you might expect during a period of such unprecedented uncertainty, both the share of businesses investing and, in particular, the monetary value of investments fell substantially in 2020.