“But when we look at the year over year comparison for the second half, we're going to be challenged given we had a strong second half of the year last year.”

In context

“hing our single premium foreign currency product. We've also optimized our capital structure for these products by leveraging our internal reinsurance in Bermuda. So the combination of both the product differentiation, the speed to market, as well as the strength of our distribution in the face to face as well as bank assurance has really been a strong factor in growing sales. If we look the rest of Asia, we've recovered really well this year. We've seen broad based improvement in China, India and Korea. And overall, all the initiatives we've taken on the customer side, the distribution side, as well as on the product, the new product launches have really helped in these markets. And if we look ahead to the outlook, our management actions have really continued to drive the sales momentum. But when we look at the year over year comparison for the second half, we're going to be challenged given we had a strong second half of the year last year. However, we're on track to be at the high end of the full year guidance of mid to high single digits. Erik Bass: Thank you. Operator: Next, we move to a question from Jamminder Bhullar with JP Morgan. Please go ahead. Jamminder Bhullar: Good morning. So first, just a question on threads in the retirement business. Assuming that interest rates sort of followed the forward yield curve, it would be reasonable that your yield would pick up, but should we assume that spreads would improve as well? Or are you at a point where now any incremental increases in yield in the retirement business would need to be passed through to customers through higher productivity? John McCallion: Hey, Jimmy, it's John. Good morning. Look, as we think about yield, as you said, we had a really strong quarter and”