On the other hand, growth is likely to chugalong at about 2% a year or so, providing jobs and record profits at companies, as well as paying higher revenues into the exchequer.
With most of the Eastern European states seeing high rates of GDP growth, energy requirements may well be the key bottleneck they face as their economies chugalong at an ever faster pace.
Once in office, he seems to have calculated that Japan would chug happily along, leaving him to pursue pet nationalist themes such as inculcating patriotism in schools.