A range of structural factors have been proposed for this secular decline in the rate of return on safe assets, including demographic changes, a slowdown in the rate of technological progress, and a high demand for safe assets relative to their supply.1 This decline in long-run interest rates has consequences for monetary policy.
I am not going to bore you with numbers, but just as an indication, our foreign currency reserves increased from around $ million to $ billion in three years, and the increase is continuing. Inflation and interest rates are lower than in Australia. Economic activity as measured by GDP growth is around 4 percent in recent years.