Growth in some of our export markets has been quite good or at least improving. Certainly in the euro area there seems to be a bit more life than there was. |
Growth was likely to pick up gradually, not spectacularly, into this year and I think what we've seen is probably the beginning of that process. The pickup is there in the last two or three months of 2005. |
The economy continues to grow at more or less its trend rate and there is no obvious reason for interest rates to change in the near future. |