These decisions must also protect the environment and ensure broad-based economic growth.

As we continue to monitor the changing economic environment, including housing-related metrics, employment, real wage growth and demographic trends, we have confidence in our future performance as the outlook for home-improvement spending remains strong.

These results are pleasing in that good revenue growth was achieved in the current low inflationary environment but many businesses experienced cost increases in excess of inflation, due to start-up costs of increasing capacity and fuel price rises.

In general, a rising rate environment slows down growth, so most companies are not going to go as good as when rates are low.

Considering the current economic environment and tightening of capital within the telecom sector, we are projecting growth in revenues and earnings per share from operations in 2001 over 2000 of 30 percent,

In that type of environment you can get respectable return in line with earnings growth, but not extremely high returns like those in the 1980s and 1990s.