Governor, South African Reserve Bank, Mr. Rudolf Gouws, Chief Economist, Rand Merchant Bank, distinguished invitees and delegates, First of all I would wish to thank His Excellency the High Commissioner of India for giving me the opportunity and privilege to address this distinguished and august audience.
Clearly, therefore, the forces that drove the rise in household debt ratios were not unique to Australia. The two biggest contributing factors were financial deregulation and the structural decline in interest rates. One of the consequences of financial deregulation was that the availability of credit to households greatly increased.