Several small European countries, such as Sweden and the Netherlands, have much higher ratios than Australia does. I would not expect or want Australia’s ratio to be as high as it is in those countries. Their institutions are different. In particular, a wider range of debt is tax-deductible in those countries, so households have less incentive to pay debt down.
2 / 12  BIS central bankers' speeches  Distributions Matter: The Micro-level Dimension The concept of inequality perhaps of most interest to this conference, though, is the differences across households. The way people access housing is not the same. These distributional issues can be considered over several dimensions.