Other components of demand, such as consumption and construction, are recovering slowly, if at all.

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The growth rate of these components of demand would, however, more likely than not be below historic norms for the foreseeable future.

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At the same time, all components of private demand grew.

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And as the President has said often, the type of demand for these components in manufacturing is only going to increase as we seek solutions to our energy problems.

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It has thrived on the outsourcing by car firms of complex components and on the burgeoning demand for four-wheel-drive transmissions.

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The price of anything has three components: supply, demand and the scale used for measurement.

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However, a closer look at the individual components of the index suggests that this time supply constraints, not rising demand, are the biggest explanation of rising prices.

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On the components business side, demand for PC DRAM remained weak but growth of high value-added products such as server and mobile DRAM was constant due to increased sales of mobile devices.

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We can all make up our own minds of course: if Apple has halved orders for components then for demand to have remained static then Apple must have been assuming that demand would double.

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