Now, I would like to move on to Japan's economic developments. The growth pace in the global economy has remained slow, and this has affected Japan's economy, mainly the manufacturing and export-related industries (Chart 4). Since the turn of the year, manufacturers' sentiment in  3  Japan has become clearly cautious.
With regard to exports and production activity, some weakness has continued to be observed, particularly in capital goods used for business fixed investment and automobile-related goods. As for the outlook, these developments are likely to continue for the time being with the pick-up in the global economy being delayed.