Bank of Japan’s August report of recent economic and financial developments1 Bank of Japan, 12 August 2002 * The Bank’s View  *  *  2  Japan’s economy, despite persistent weakness in domestic demand and increasing uncertainty regarding the global economy, has almost stabilized as a whole with exports and production continuing to increase.
With regard to final demand, business fixed investment continues to decrease and private consumption, despite some resilience, remains weak as a whole. Moreover, housing investment remains sluggish and public investment continues to decline. Meanwhile, net exports (real exports minus real imports) continue to increase significantly due to the recovery in overseas economies and also to the effects of restocking abroad, mainly in IT-related goods.