King, M., Monetary policy: Theory in practice, speech delivered on 7 January 2000. And even if we do tilt the portfolio in a risk-oriented manner, we will be reliant on a suitable and transparent risk measure. It is all the more important, then, to enhance our pool of information, through reporting obligations for issuers or rating standards, say.
Many feel uncertain about the future and so are waiting until there is a sustained pick-up in demand before committing to new capital expenditure. There is no single factor driving this tendency to wait and a similar story seems to be playing out in many other advanced economies.