Thursday's GDP data are likely to show that the non-financial corporate sector is still running a big surplus - that is, its capital spending is lagging far behind retained profits. Other figures that day will probably show little change in business investment in the first quarter.
This reluctance to invest cannot be blamed entirely upon a lack of finance. A survey by the Bank of England the same day is likely to show that credit has become more available to companies recently - which is consistent with CBI surveys which show only a small minority of companies reporting that a lack of credit constraints output and investment. Instead, capital spending is restrained by a lack of demand, weak technical progress and continued uncertainty.
It's not just companies that aren't spending much. Nor are consumers. Tuesday's CBI survey is likely to show only very weak growth in retail sales over the last 12 months - due in large part to the fact that real wages are falling.
However, things are brightening up overseas. On Monday, surveys by Germany's Ifo research group and by the National Bank of Belgium might both continue last month's increases. This would increase hopes that the eurozone's recession might be drawing to an end.
In the US, we could see a strong recovery in the housing market on Tuesday. Sales of new houses could be 25 per cent up on last year, while the S&P/Case-Shiller index of house prices could show a rise of around 11 per cent - the biggest increase since 2006. Spectacular as this seems, it still leaves the market a long way off its peak. Prices are more than 25 per cent below their 2006 peak, and sales of new homes are less than half their peak levels.
It's not just the housing market that's recovering, though. Economists expect to see a small rise in durable goods orders and in consumer confidence on Tuesday, and slight rises in personal incomes and spending on Thursday. All this would be consistent with the economy growing modestly in the second quarter. This will, however, not be enough to resolve the uncertainty about whether or when the Fed will begin to reduce its quantitative easing.
