As you know, the Central Bank now has two Deputy Governors. The new banknotes being issued today from the old family carry, for the first time, three signatures. So, if I may say, rather pleasingly, we celebrate today a first, the commemorative coin; a double first, the bimetallic twenty rupee coin; and a triple first, the new notes with three signatures.
Over the past four years, nominal average hourly earnings have grown at the slowest rate in many decades. This means that borrowers haven’t been able to rely on rising incomes to reduce the real value of the debt repayments in the way they used to; debtservice ratios will stay higher for longer.