[ 8] So on that metric monetary policy has been easier. Even achieving the present trajectory of domestic demand that we have, which has left the economy with a bit of spare capacity, has involved some net rise in the ratio of household debt to GDP. On the supply side, overall population growth increased and was its highest in many decades.
But growth in the population of people aged 15 to 64 years was slower than overall population growth (see Table 3). This was in contrast to previous decades, when the “15–64” population typically grew as fast as or faster than total population – a “demographic dividend”.