At the same time, households are trying to repair their balance sheets which have been adversely affected by declines in house and equity prices. In other words, the monetary transmission mechanisms are impaired, and what usually works in a relatively predicable way under normal circumstances, may not work in the same way under current abnormal circumstances.
In the left-hand chart, "East Asia & Pacific (excluding High Income)" covers the "East Asia & Pacific" (a country and region grouping employed in the World Bank's World Development Indicators) excluding high-income countries and regions (Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, and Singapore). 2.