In this regard, the question is whether there is a role for public policy in matters relating to credit counselling? We must recognise that financial intermediaries, the corporates and high net worth individuals generally possess in-house knowledge of matters relating to financial management and can afford to employ outside expertise as appropriate in regard to their investment decision and management of distressed loans.
I want to emphasize that policy does not hinge on decimal points – we always know we are dealing with a range of possible outcomes. Interpretation of the recent data is complicated by the slowdown in the U.S. in the same quarter, which no doubt was partly due to severe weather and a port strike in Los Angeles. We had some unusual weather ourselves.