To say that does not diminish, however, the fact that this has been a very good run for Australia. 8  Even with the shift in margins between the cash rate and lending rates, real lending rates have been lower by between 70 and 90 basis points on average in the latter period.
9  Had participation rates within age groups moved in the way we have seen but the population age structure been unchanged from where it was in September 2006, simple calculations suggest that the participation rate would have been 1.8 percentage points higher in the June quarter 2016.