in advanced economies. a deep understanding of tax and benefit systems is therefore crucial to anticipate aggregate demand and inflation dynamics and to assess the appropriate stance of monetary policy and, more generally, of the overall policy mix. from the standpoint of banco de espana, the foregoing arguments in favour of a wide view on our research activities are even more compelling since our responsibilities include providing advice to the spanish government on economic policies. in so doing, we have not remained indifferent to the transformations referred to above and the avenues of research inspired by them. consistent with this broad perspective on central bank research, our economists engage in an extensive variety of topics, some of which go beyond the more traditional focus of central banks. for example, we have recently placed emphasis on the study of the aggregate effects of structural reforms in product and labour markets, the distributional consequences of tax policies, the evolution of income inequality and the assessment of the financial competences of the population, to name but a few. more generally, we believe that high - quality theoretical and empirical analyses are necessary to fulfil one of our core mandates : understanding and monitoring developments in the euro area and spanish economies. we see high - quality research as an indispensable tool to adopt sound policymaking decisions. in this regard, in recent years banco de espana has aimed to further improve the standard of its research activity and to strengthen collaboration with other institutions. overall, these endeavours reaffirm our commitment to research, as the fundamental basis for good policy decisions, and i hope they will enhance our research output in the future. i would not like to miss this opportunity to underline the importance of relying on accurate and available statistics for economic analysis and research. it is my view that allowing independent researchers to access high - quality data is a necessary step to advance in the knowledge of the issues referred to above. in this regard, over the years more and more countries are easing the requirements to work with the micro and administrative data produced by the public sector. i believe that spain should not lag behind in this endeavour. in keeping with this assessment, banco de espana provides researchers with the micro data of some of the surveys it conducts, such as the survey of household finances and the survey of financial competences. but more needs to be done. in this regard, we are committed to extending the availability of micro data to other products, such as the balance sheet data of non - financial corporations and some banking data. in this respect, banco

about 7 times. that is quite a striking result. it is at least as large, for example, as the relative increase in assets of american households, which occurred in the stock market boom there in the late 1990s. the difference is that, in australia, much of this increase in asset values, particularly over the past few years, has been a result of rising house prices. with financial liberalisation allowing more access to debt, and with the decline in interest rates making debt more affordable to the average household, this asset accumulation has been accompanied by a rise in debt, though the ratio of debt to assets has risen only moderately, from around 14 - 15 per cent in the late 1980s, to about 17 - 18 per cent now. the structural decline in inflation and interest rates explains much of the rise in borrowing and buying by owner - occupiers. the effects of the gains in wealth on their behaviour are still working their way through the economy. but at present, our focus is on the role of investors in rental dwellings, which has become much more prominent in the past couple of years. these are people who presumably have been attracted by perceptions of capital gains and tax advantages of leverage, and who recently may have been disappointed with returns in the share market. nearly 50 cents of every loan dollar approved for housing purposes is now going to investors, which is unprecedented. the rba has examined all this in detail in other places and i will not repeat that analysis today. it does raise the question, however, of whether housing values can continue to increase like this. ultimately, there has to be an income stream which anchors asset values. in the case of investor housing, that stream is, of course, the rent on the property. rental yields have fallen noticeably in recent years, and there is widespread talk of rentals being under continued downward pressure at present, as the supply of dwellings for rent outstrips demand, something which appears likely to continue, and perhaps intensify, for a while at least. it is getting harder and harder to believe that the prospective returns from that outlook are high enough either to sustain valuations which are so high relative to historical experience, or to warrant the $ 4 - 5 billion which is being loaned to investors each month. hence we are keen to see the pace of both price gains and the run - up in debt abate. this is not motivated by a puritan disdain for debt, or a desire to target some “ correct ” level of house