2 / 11  BIS central bankers' speeches  A second issue is the unusually slow growth in nominal and real wages. Over the past four years, the increase in average hourly earnings has been the slowest since at least the mid 1960s (Graph 3).
This is partly a consequence of the unwinding of the mining boom but there are structural factors at work as well. The slow growth in wages is putting a strain on household budgets and contributing to low rates of inflation. 3 / 11  BIS central bankers' speeches  A third issue is the high level of household debt and housing prices.