Again, this is much faster than we experienced in earlier decades and faster than in other advanced economies (Graph 3). By way of comparison, over this same period, there has been a cumulative increase in real income per capita across the G7 economies of just 28 per cent, or around just 1¼ per cent per year on average.
Bank lending rates remained high and the spread between lending and deposit rates has been unacceptably wide. The role of the financial system in economic development cannot be overstated. Apart from the critical role financial markets play in mobilizing savings and allocating them to productive investment, an efficient financial market would provide a more stable source of financing for both private and public sector.