More than 80 major domestic firms out of 100 expect economic expansion to continue at least until the second half of 2006, according to a Kyodo News survey released Tuesday.
The results of the poll of top executives in December suggest many business leaders anticipate the current uptrend, which began in January 2002, will be the longest postwar expansion, beating the so-called Izanagi Boom of 57 straight months of economic growth between October 1965 and July 1970.
Of the 100 firms selected by Kyodo from a range of industries, including Toyota Motor Corp., Sony Corp. and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., 33 predicted the current expansion will continue until the second half of 2006 and 49 said it will probably last until 2007 or later, due to increases in corporate profits and consumer spending.
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