64, seasonally - adjusted data. sources : the oecd and the world bank wdi figure 2. employment and labour force compared with pre - crisis figures change in per cent 2008q1 – 2013q2 ( alt. most recent outcomes ) aus nzl labour force can swe nor bel aut ita fragbr ger eu ned gre sui esp usa fin - 1 den por - 3 - 1 - 3 jpn irl - 5 - 21 - 18 - 15 - 5 - 12 - 9 - 6 - 3 employment note. employment, total, seasonally - adjusted data labour force, ages 15 – 64, seasonally - adjusted data. source : the oecd bis central bankers ’ speeches figure 3. credit developments in sweden and the euro area households and companies, annual percentage change euro area households euro area companies sweden households sweden companies - 5 - 5 note. for sweden, mfi lending to households. sources : the ecb sdw and statistics sweden figure 4. number of occurrences of “ household debt ” in around 80 newspapers and journals number of hits 2005 - 2013 sources : tns sifo and the riksbank bis central bankers ’ speeches figure 5. the economic situation in july 2010 purchasing managers ’ index in the manufacturing industry index over 50 indicates growth usa euro area sweden - 5 - 5 - 10 - 10 - 15 july - 15 - 1 - 20 - 2 inflation annual percentage change april - 10 - 5 - 5 - 10 households - 20 companies gdp quarterly changes in per cent calculated in annualised terms, seasonally - adjusted data bank lending to companies and households annual percentage change cpi cpif - 1 cpif excluding energy - 2 sources : the institute for supply management, markit economics, statistics sweden, swedbank and the riksbank figure 6. households ’ repo - rate expectations and estimated long - run interest rates per cent variable mortgage rate, expectations 5 years ahead variable mortgage rate, outcome note. the broken lines show an interval for the long - term level of the variable mortgage rate. the interval is calculated as the total of an interval for the long - term repo rate of 3. 5 – 4. 5 per cent and an interval for the difference between a three - month mortgage rate and the repo rate of 1. 7 – 2 percentage points. sources : the national institute of economic research and statistics sweden bis central bankers ’ speeches

banks restricting their lending. however, the supply side of the housing market is also of central importance in this context. the large increase in household debt over the past fifteen years coincides to a large degree with the rise in housing prices ( see figure 7 ). one important reason for this is that the supply of housing has been small in relation to demand. after the crisis in the 1990s, housing construction in sweden has been remarkably low, lower than in most comparable countries. the reasons are not entirely clear, but there are a number of explanations that are usually given, such as high construction costs, demanding regulations and regulated rents. i do not jeremy stein at the federal reserve ’ s board of governors has expressed it as the advantage of monetary policy being that it “ gets in all of the cracks ” ( stein, 2013, p. 17 ). the riksbank has also raised this argument in various contexts, see for instance, ingves ( 2010 ) and nyberg ( 2011 ). in a study of 18 oecd countries over the period 1921 – 2011, bordo and landon - lane ( 2013 ) show that expansionary monetary policy has a significant effect on asset prices, particularly during periods when asset prices have increased rapidly, followed by a later severe downward adjustment. maddaloni and peydro find in a study of data for the euro area that banks ease their credit conditions during periods with low policy rates, even when the borrowers ’ credit risk is held constant. see, for example, blanchard, dell ’ ariccia and mauro ( 2013 ), borio ( 2013 ), carney ( 2013 ), smets ( 2013 ) and stein ( 2013 ). examples include norges bank ( 2013 ), p. 8 : “ weight was also given to the fact that house prices and debt have risen faster than income for a long period. a lower key policy rate may increase the risk of a renewed acceleration in house prices and debt accumulation and of build - up of financial imbalances. ” ; bank of canada ( 2013 ) : “ [ t ] he bank must also take into consideration the risk of exacerbating already - elevated household imbalances. ” ; and the reserve bank of new zealand ( 2012 ) : “ in addition, the pta ’ s stronger focus on financial stability makes it clearer that it may be appropriate to use monetary policy to lean against the build - up of financial imbalances, if the reserve bank believes this could prevent