Our research indicates that this increase in aggregate debt was due to increases in both the number of borrowers as well as increases in the average balance per borrower. Between 2004 and 2014, the number of borrowers increased by 92 percent from 23 million borrowers to 43 million. In the same period, average debt per borrower increased by 74 percent, from about $ to $ With respect to the rise in the number of borrowers, we find that a steadily increasing share of young people are taking out student loans: in 2004, only about 27 percent of 25 year olds had student debt while 9 years later, in 2013, the proportion of 25 years olds with student debt had increased to about 45 percent. There are several explanations for these increases. First, more people are attending college 1. Second, students are staying in college longer and attending graduate school in greater numbers, and loans to finance graduate study have become more readily available. Third, competing non-education sources of credit such as home equity loans and credit card debt have imposed tighter underwriting standards, and generally have become less available since 2008. A fourth reason is the slow repayment rate on these loans, which I will discuss in more detail a little later. But another important reason for the increase in overall student debt, which I will discuss first, is the significant growth in the cost of a college education during the period 2.
This requires all actors – both at national and European level – to play their parts in line with their respective mandates as laid down in the EU Treaties. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  No monetary stimulus, indeed no fiscal stimulus, can be successful unless accompanied by the right structural policies – policies that foster potential growth and instil confidence. I would like to illustrate this argument by focusing on investment, which will also be discussed at the informal ECOFIN this weekend. Investment has been one of the great casualties of this crisis. The downturn in business investment in the euro area since 2008 has been much more severe than in earlier business cycles. From peak to trough, business investment decreased by around 20%, against 15% in the 1992 recession. The level of business investment in the euro area has only slightly improved since 2008, whereas in the US it is above its pre-crisis level. We will not see a sustainable recovery unless this changes. A decisive rise in investment is essential to bring inflation closer to where we would want to see it, to stimulate the economy, and to bring down unemployment. So what can we policy-makers do to revive investment? My main message today is that only if structural, fiscal and monetary policies go hand in hand will the euro area see investment return. Let me focus in particular on the decisive contribution which structural policies can make.