The latest batch of economic reports has given the public reason to take heart. The Finance Ministry's quarterly business survey, released last week, found busi- ness-fixed investment rose 3.3 percent in the January-March term, the first year-on-year rise in nine quarters.

Thanks to the upturn in capital spending, the nation ended fiscal 1999 with a 0.5 percent real increase in gross domestic product, the first in three years.

The survey also found that the combined total of pretax profits of all industries surged 38.7 percent over the previous year on top of a 41.8 percent gain the previous quarter.