In my opinion, the key issue for central banks is to differentiate between need for short-term liquidity to rescue troubled financial entities and need for adoption of a credible monetary policy stance which aims to calibrate liquidity management in a way that it does not aggravate inflationary risks which in turn would trigger further complication and protract the global economic recovery.
Mortgage debt as a percent of the market value of homes accordingly rose somewhat more than 1 percentage point during the year. Mortgage debt service costs as a percent of the disposable income of homeowners last year were little changed from 2001.