with some caveats. first, these aggregate statistics can mask some important variations, and there are some local markets where, as in the prior boom, both house prices and mortgage growth are quite strong. similarly, there exist substantial differences across households in their financial situation and their ability to improve their balance sheets. borrowers with little equity, low credit scores and slow income growth face difficulties refinancing into low rate mortgages. as a result, this subset of the population has been less able to deleverage and still faces bis central bankers ’ speeches relatively high debt service costs, which constrains their consumption, investment and saving behavior. so, even within what looks to be a stable overall mortgage market, there are some things that we must continue to monitor. second, there are other difficult challenges that many households face, particularly with respect to a subject we ’ ve discussed on previous occasions – student loans. on balance, though, households are in a much better position today than they were in 2008. now, i ’ d like to turn things over to our economists, beginning with andrew haughwout, who will provide a more detailed discussion of household sector finances. bis central bankers ’ speeches

increase the soundness of financial system ， with a view to further improving industrial structure, controlling credit risks, supporting consumption expansion and increasing employment. since the beginning of 2006, the pbc has continued to implement a sound monetary policy by intensifying liquidity management in banking system and policy coordination between local and foreign currencies. a mix of monetary policy instruments was employed to optimize credit structure, appropriately adjust money and credit aggregate, producing an evident effect in macroeconomic management. at present, outstanding problems and imbalances in economic performance have eased, as featured in the slowdown of slightly fast momentum of economic development, decelerated growth of investment and industrial production. excessive expansion of money and credit has been initially contained. the broad money m2 decelerated gradually after may. at end - september, m2 grew by 16. 8 percent year on year, down 1. 6 percentage points and 0. 9 percentage points from that at end2005 and the same period last year respectively, reaching the bottom of the year. the rmb exchange rate experienced both upward and downward movements, its flexibility still gradually strengthened. at end - september, the rmb against us dollar exchange rate closed at 7. 9041 yuan, representing a cumulative appreciation of 4. 65 percent after the exchange rate regime reform. in the third quarter, gdp increased by 10. 4 percent year on year, decelerated by 0. 9 percentage points from the growth rate of 11. 3 percent in the second quarter. the price level remained basically stable in the second quarter, and the consumer price index ( cpi ) generally rose by 1. 3 percent. at present, the national economy is developing in the direction anticipated by macroeconomic management. however, problems in economic performance can not be neglected, especially longstanding structural imbalances such as excess savings rate, lower - than - desired consumption rate, which are unlikely to be solved overnight. first, economic growth is overly depended on investment and export, and domestic consumption demand is relatively inadequate. the share of final consumption in gdp dropped from 62 percent in the 1980s to 52. 1 percent in 2005, and household consumption rate declined from 48. 8 percent in 1991 to 38. 2 percent in 2005, both hitting a record low. the savings rate climbed from 38. 9 percent in 2001 to 47. 9 percent in 2005, gaining 9 percentage points over the past five years. a relatively high savings rate as a product of the lower - than - desired consumption rate is