diminished 0. 9 % in real terms, explained mainly by the exchange rate effect in the valuation of the external component. this trajectory owes largely to the fact that the increases in corporate bond issuances observed since mid - 2016 have not translated into more borrowing. on the contrary, the low cash flow assigned to investment suggests that these funds have been oriented to the refinancing of liabilities, consistently with the lower interest rates. on the other hand, delinquency indicators, while still low, show a marginal deterioration with respect to the previous fsr. in the case of services, this increase has concentrated in some real - estate firms. as for the productive sectors, marginal rises are observed in several industries such as construction, transport and telecommunications, and electricity, gas, and water. meanwhile, in others such as mining, trade, and manufacturing, the declines identified in the last fsr continue. residential market figures have shown more stability in recent quarters. after the adjustment process described in previous reports, the sale of new homes in santiago has remained stable for several quarters. at the same time, in the second quarter this year, the various home price indicators — in the metropolitan region and nationwide — show positive but modest growth. residential building activity remains weak and different sources of information see no recovery anytime soon. moreover, the adjustment of the sector must be monitored before law 20, 958 on contributions to public space comes into effect, aimed at making real estate projects accountable for the impacts they have on local mobility. regarding housing credit, the stock of mortgage loans showed a rebound in the last quarter ( figure 11 ). the number of bank mortgage debtors with more than one housing loan continued to grow, reaching 29 % at the statistical close of this fsr. a subset of such debtors are investors who buy properties for rent. household financial indicators show no change in the risks identified in the last fsr, which are mostly related to the future evolution of the labor market. since the last report, bank mortgage debt increased, while consumer debt with banks decelerated, and accelerated with other sources. thus, as of the second quarter this year, the aggregate debt of the sector stood at 45 % of gdp ( figure 12 ), placing chile in the upper segment of a sample of emerging countries but below developed economies. however, the median financial burden has remained stable at around 20 % of income due to lower interest rates. in terms of financial gaps, there was a greater use of

in reduced imports in the coming months. in turn, final domestic demand — excluding inventories — was somewhat lower than expected, and continued to account for the dissimilar behavior of consumption and investment ( figure 3 ). consumption shows a somewhat stronger growth, with improvements in several of its fundamentals. one important concern about the economy early in the year was the deterioration of the labor market, in particular the salaried employment drop in annual terms. this was one of the risk factors that led us to accelerate the mpr reduction at the beginning of the year. this risk has faded in recent months. indeed, in the last few months salaried employment has resumed its positive annual variation rates and some of its quality indicators have ceased to deteriorate. among them, an increase in private employment under contract and a decrease in involuntary part - time work are worth singling out. self - employment, although growing at a higher rate than its salaried counterpart, has slowed down and the unemployment rate is now near its levels of a year ago, slightly higher than at the end of the first quarter ( figure 4 ). nominal wages'annual growth rate stopped falling. in june they expanded between 4. 4 % and 5. 0 %, compared with rates of 5. 5 % and 6. 0 % in june of 2016. real wages increased their annual variation, mainly due to low inflation. all this contributed to real incomes, measured by the real wage bill, slightly increasing their annual growth rate, to 3 %. add to this that consumer expectations have improved systematically in the last five months, although they are still in pessimistic territory. moreover, the cost of credit is at record lows, consistent with the expansionary instance of monetary policy ( figure 5 ). unlike consumption, investment remains weak, especially its construction and works component, which has steepened its annual fall from mid - 2016, hand in hand with a drop in housing investment and reduced public investment. investment in machinery and equipment, despite some annual deceleration from the previous quarter, continues to outperform recent years, especially after discounting the non - regular transportation item, thus accumulating a nine - month string of positive growth rates ( figure 6 ). on the external side, a more favorable scenario for the emerging world and chile has been strengthening. the terms of trade have improved, with copper prices above $ 3 per pound in recent weeks. this, in a context in which the price