In early 2002, the global economy seemed to have started a robust recovery from the global recession, but inthe second quarter of the year it began to falter again. The growing uncertainties in the international economy have been magnified by uncertainties in the US economy: corporate financing scandals that eroded confidence in the corporate sector, deteriorating profitability, weakening dollar and growing capital withdrawals, equity market decline, widening current account deficits, and the possibility of a war against Iraq. The delayed recovery of the U.S. economy is also a contributing factor to the weakening economy in Western Europe and Japan. (The rest is omitted.)