Economy Supported by Higher Retail Sales

Recent months have seen a further improvement in business and consumer sentiment. Companies intend to invest considerably more than last year. Real retail sales also picked up at the turn of the year. The modest rise in prices contributed to a strengthening of purchasing power at the beginning of 2006. While the cyclical recovery led to strong employment gains, notably in part-time jobs, unemployment growth decelerated owing to the economic re-covery and additional labour market policy measures.