Therefore, any data concerning new lending in H1 2015 will mostly contain mortgages that were approved prior to the introduction of the regulations, given that banks allow approvals to last up to nine months. Indeed, it may well be that these measures have only started to affect lending recently.
The most recent wave of technology has engendered a pronounced rise in American rates of return on high-tech investments, which has led to a stepped-up pace of capital deepening and increased productivity growth. Indeed, it is still difficult to find credible evidence in the United States that the rate of structural productivity growth has stopped increasing.