There are a few reasons.
We do a business outlook survey, which surveys 100 businesses across the country each quarter. We also do a more frequent business pulse survey, which is a digital survey that captures more small and medium-sized companies. After the initial increase in tariffs by the United States and the extreme unpredictability of U.S. policy, we saw investment intentions really fall off. Businesses were understandably nervous about making big investment decisions if they didn't know how much access they would have to the U.S. market.
More recently, I wouldn't say the uncertainty has gone down a lot, but perhaps businesses are getting used to it. I think businesses are recognizing that our relationship with the United States has fundamentally changed. Let's hope we get a new agreement and that it's better than where we are now, but we're not going back to where we were before, so they have to get on with business. You see that in their investment intentions. They're starting to realize, “Okay, we have to get on with business. We have to invest. If we don't invest, we're out of business.”
