I will keep my remarks brief today, because I know that Energy Press Club members have an extremely full schedule, with press conferences by President Tsujiyoshi Toma of Okinawa Electric Power Co., Ltd., mid-term reports by Seibu Oil Co., Ltd and Nippon Oil Corporation, and, at 3:30 this afternoon, an Electricity Industry Committee press conference to attend.

Today, the bulletin of electricity generated and purchased in October was released. Details are shown in Reference Document 1-1. As the table at the upper right shows, electricity generated and purchased across the 10 power companies totaled 71.23 billion kWh, which represents 99.1% of the amount recorded during the same period one year ago. It is also the first decline we have experienced in two months.

The main reason for the drop was cool weather in the first half of October that depressed demand for cooling.

With regard to overall economic trends, I ask you to turn to Reference Document 1-2. Although final figures for October electricity sales have not yet been tallied, results through the end of September are available. Looking at the large industrial user demand that is a prime indicator of economic trends, we can see that despite this year's unseasonably cool summer weather, the figures for September are 100.8% of last September's figures, the first year-on-year gain we have seen in three months.

Overall, it seems that the economy is gradually showing signs of recovery. When we look at demand by sector, chemicals, non-ferrous metals, and machinery have shown gains for the first time in several months, while year-on-year figures for paper, pulp, ceramics, and ceramics continue to decline, and steel has experienced its first downturn in 17 months. So looking at the electricity demand figures, it continues to be difficult to identify any definitive trend.

However, the Diffusion Index bulletin for September that was released last week reports a coincident index of 83.3%, well over the 50% level that marks a turning point in the economy's direction. As a result, the overall forecast was revised from "generally flat" to "improving" for the first time in six months.

With respect to the future, hopes have been buoyed by a rebound in domestic capital investment and a turnaround in exports, particularly in Asia. But these hopes have been tempered by worrisome factors such as the increasing strength of the yen. I therefore feel that we can be hopeful, but that we need to keep a close eye on electricity demand trends in the months ahead.