Given our starting point, with inflation somewhat below target and expected to remain so for a while, we are relatively well placed to weather the storm if it begins to blow more strongly. BIS Review 33/2001  3
Since 2012, the New York Fed has devoted considerable attention to the rapid growth in student debt levels and delinquencies by publishing a number of reports. The findings in these reports were largely based on data from our Consumer Credit Panel (CCP), a nationally representative dataset sourced from Equifax credit reports. This unique dataset has enabled us to provide new insights into the overall state of the student loan market and into individual student loan borrowing and repayment behavior not available from other data sources. 1/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  Today, we will first provide a brief overview of aggregate household debt and its borrowers, followed by a presentation based on new research on student debt, which focuses on delinquency and repayment rates. We find that recent cohorts of college students are defaulting at a lower rate than those who left higher education during the recession. But, at the same time, their repayment rates are also lower. Despite an improving labor market, overall delinquency rates on student debt remain stubbornly high, and repayment progress has slowed further, likely reflecting the recent introduction of more accommodative payment plans. Payment progress is particularly low for those with larger debts and for those from lower-income areas. Much remains to be learned about the causes of the observed expansion of debt burdens and repayment problems among recent college graduates.