1.   Rates on car loans and credit cards should come down too, but perhaps not as quickly, said economists.

2.   Already, say economists, their financial dependence on oil and gas revenues is worryingly excessive, despite razor-thin legal claims to the gushing offshore wells.

3.   As a result the plan could backfire by persuading companies to hire fewer people, economists said.

4.   As fourth-quarter figures will be restated Thursday, the basis on which the estimates have been made are likely to change, economists said.

5.   As companies depend on technology for productivity gains, pressures to increase wages become less of an issue, economists said.

6.   At the same time, weak consumer spending in Japan will suppress import growth through next year, economists said.

7.   Automakers and other manufacturers have watched their inventories rise since then and are likely to cut production in the autumn, economists said.

8.   Auto sales have been running stronger than expected so far this year, economists said.

9.   Behind the debate on the independence of the EU central bank lies a gulf between France and Germany concerning economic management, economists said.

10.   Because the labor market lags the rest of the economy, higher unemployment is not unusual at the beginning of a recovery, economists said.