He noted that in California, by contrast, only a dozen of 200 lenders were offering single-digit rates.

So, Mr. Coll said, further earnings growth must come from increasing revenues - and, in general, corporate revenues are growing at only single-digit rates.

Long Island prices were rising at single-digit rates, off their doubledigit pace earlier in the year.

A stable debt-to-GDP ratio is, anyway, probably not enough to maintain Italy's access to global capital markets at single-digit rates of interest, with the market insisting on a cut.

Getting Stubborn on Prices With the economy growing at barely single-digit rates, prices should be tumbling.

When consumer prices and wages are rising at low single-digit rates, employers will reject big increases for health care, he said.

By contrast, he said, revenues for the rail, truck and airlines industries have all increased at single-digit rates.

From 1990 until the end of 1994 the Government succeeded in cutting rampant inflation, limiting it to single-digit rates for the last three years.

He said many analysts decided that their projections were too high after the International Business Machines Corporation said its revenues were expected to grow at a single-digit rate next year.