what happens on this front is important. recently, determining the underlying strength of consumption has been complicated by volatility in the consumption data in the national accounts, as well as notable revisions to the history of both consumption and household income. on balance, though, the available data suggest that the underlying trend in consumption is softer than it earlier looked to be and this has affected the outlook for the economy. there are a couple of important considerations here. the first is the protracted period of relatively low growth in aggregate household income. the second is the decline in housing prices in our largest cities. since 2016, aggregate household disposable income has grown at an average rate of around 2¾ per cent per year. this is down from an average of 6 per cent over the preceding decade. it is plausible that households have responded to this extended period of weaker income growth by progressively downgrading their spending plans. for many people, it has become harder to see the lower growth in income as just a short - term development that can be looked through. on this front, we are expecting better news ahead, with growth in disposable income forecast to increase. wages are rising more quickly in almost all industries and in all states than they were a year ago. this is good news and we expect this gradual lift in wages growth to continue. disposable income will also be boosted by the announced tax cuts. faster income growth will support household spending. from a longer - term perspective, though, the key to boosting the real income of households is lifting productivity. i encourage you to keep examining ways to do this. looking beyond income growth, developments in the housing market can also affect overall spending. lower turnover means less of the spending that occurs when people move homes. declining housing prices also make some people feel less wealthy, so they spend less, although this effect doesn ’ t look to be very large. lower housing prices are also associated with less construction activity. so these are the areas we are keeping a close watch on. we do, though, need to keep things in perspective. the adjustments in the sydney and melbourne housing markets are occurring at a time of low unemployment, low interest rates and strong population growth. what we are witnessing is largely the working through of shifts in 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches supply and demand for housing due to structural factors. in both markets it took a long time for supply to respond to faster population growth, so prices went up. and now

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