- damaged housing stock. in auckland, the shortage has been growing over a much longer period, with weak or declining rates of house building since 2005. while the trend in people - per - dwelling in auckland has been moving steadily upwards since 2005, demand for home - ownership has accelerated in more recent times due to the ready availability of cheap credit and a growing trend amongst renters to become first home buyers. the recent growth in net immigration is also adding to the excess demand situation. plans to increase the housing supply are well underway. residential building consents are trending upwards in christchurch and auckland, and indeed in the rest of the country. the residential consent process has improved in christchurch and efforts are being made to streamline planning and consents in auckland via the government / council accord and the unitary plan. however, meeting the combined three year targets of christchurch and auckland would require a major mobilisation of national construction resources. in all likelihood, the build will be stretched over a longer period. expanding housing demand through easy credit will do nothing to speed up the housing supply response. it simply adds to housing demand, pushes up house prices and makes housing less affordable. the reserve bank has introduced lvr restrictions on bank mortgage lending aimed at moderating house price inflation by reducing the effective demand for housing. this is intended to reduce the build - up of systematic risk in the new zealand financial system. it will also potentially reduce the extent of interest rate increases, and hence exchange rate pressure, that may be needed in the coming cycle. references bloor, c and c mcdonald ( 2013 ) “ estimating the impacts of restrictions on high lvr lending ” reserve bank of new zealand analytical note, 2013 / 05 grimes, a and a aitken ( 2006 ) “ regional housing markets in new zealand : house price, sales and supply responses ”, centre for housing research aotearoa new zealand, department of building and housing, and housing new zealand corporation, wellington. new zealand productivity commission ( 2012 ), “ new zealand productivity commission inquiry into housing affordability ”, final report, april 2012. new zealand productivity commission ( 2013 ) “ the effect of auckland ’ s metropolitan urban limit on land prices ”, research note, march 2013. bis central bankers ’ speeches

yoshihisa morimoto : economic activity and prices in japan and monetary policy summary of a speech by mr yoshihisa morimoto, member of the policy board of the bank of japan, at a meeting with business leaders, saitama, 9 december 2010. * i. * * the global economy economic activity in japan is closely linked to global economic developments. therefore, before discussing the japanese economy, i will first take a look at trends in the world economy. from around 2005, the world economy grew at a rapid pace of around 5 percent annually, with china and other emerging economies gaining in prominence. the failure of lehman brothers in september 2008, however, brought this growth to a sudden halt, and the world economy marked negative growth in 2009 due to the severe contraction in the first half of the year. causes of the sharp decline include the rapid deceleration in economic and financial activity due to the financial crisis triggered by the lehman shock, and the corrections to the various excesses that had built up in the world economy since the mid - 2000s. by “ excesses, ” i am referring to overborrowing by households, excess production capacity in the corporate sector, and the large amount of nonperforming loans held by financial institutions. measures to address the financial crisis implemented by governments and central banks around the world started to show effects from the second half of 2009. with the contraction in economic and financial activity having come to a halt, policy measures to stimulate demand provided a further boost. it should be noted, however, that the pace of economic growth has been slowing somewhat since summer 2010, as restocking of inventories that took place during the recovery phase came to an end and the effects of demand - boosting measures in the united states and other countries waned. the slowdown is also due in part to the unwinding of accommodative policies in emerging countries in order to keep economies from overheating. a. advanced economies let us look at advanced economies in more detail. the u. s. economy remains on a moderate uptrend. although the effects of fiscal stimulus measures have been waning, exports to emerging and commodity - exporting economies have continued to increase and private consumption and business fixed investment have been rising moderately. housing starts have remained at a depressed level after dropping sharply due to the expiry of tax credits for homebuyers, but are unlikely to fall further. as for the outlook, the u.