The economy has eroded into a pathetic situation as corporate capital spending, now the sole driving force for economic growth, is thought certain to decline in light of machinery orders received.
Many economists should be expecting the nation's economic growth to be close to zero in fiscal 2001.
Still, the Tokyo Stock Exchange, as measured by the benchmark 225-issue Nikkei average, has remained in a holding pattern in recent weeks. A rupture in the stock market has been forestalled due to speculation that Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori will quit, expectations of banks' aggressive writeoffs of bad loans, and bargain-hunting of shares.
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