william c dudley : household borrowing, student debt trends and homeownership opening remarks by mr william c dudley, president and chief executive officer of the federal reserve bank of new york, at the economic press briefing on household borrowing, student debt trends and homeownership, federal reserve bank of new york, new york city, 3 april 2017. * * * andrew haughwout, joseph tracy and wilbert van der klaauw assisted in preparing these remarks. good morning, and welcome to the new york fed ’ s economic press briefing. today, we will focus on recent developments in household borrowing, with special attention on student debt. as always, what i have to say reflects my own views and not necessarily those of the federal open market committee or the federal reserve system. following a period of steady deleveraging that began during the great recession, households have gradually increased their borrowing during the past three years. later this year, total household debt is expected to reach its previous peak, from the third quarter of 2008. given past experience, one might wonder whether this level of indebtedness is sustainable or a reason for concern. answering this question requires a fuller consideration of household balance sheets and a deeper analysis of who is indebted. the increase in liabilities in recent years has been accompanied by significant improvements in the value of assets held by households, due to strong growth in housing and stock prices. moreover, household incomes have been rising at a moderate pace due to sturdy job gains and modest wage increases. as a result, the household sector ’ s financial condition today is in unusually good shape for this point in the economic cycle. in relative terms, household indebtedness is low, and — thanks in part to low interest rates — debt service burdens relative to household income have fallen to levels not seen since at least the early 1980s. as we will show in today ’ s presentation, compared to 2008, a greater proportion of overall debt today is now held by older households that have higher and more stable incomes and more experience as borrowers, on average. consequently, a much larger proportion of debt is currently held by borrowers with higher credit scores. the resulting higher overall debt quality is reflected in historically low overall delinquency rates. transition rates into new delinquency are below the levels of the early 2000s, and foreclosure and bankruptcy rates in 2016 are the lowest since our data series began in 1999. notwithstanding this overall rosy picture,

european central bank : press conference – introductory statement introductory statement by mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, paris, 5 october 2006. * * * ladies and gentlemen, the vice - president and i are very pleased to welcome you to the press conference here in paris. i would particularly like to thank governor noyer for his kind hospitality and express our special gratitude to the staff of the banque de france for the excellent organisation of the meeting of the governing council. let me now report on the outcome of our meeting, which was also attended by the president of the eurogroup, prime minister juncker, and commissioner almunia. at today ’ s meeting, we decided to increase the key ecb interest rates by 25 basis points. this decision reflects the upside risks to price stability over the medium term that we have identified through both our economic and monetary analyses. today ’ s decision will contribute to ensuring that medium to longer - term inflation expectations in the euro area remain solidly anchored at levels consistent with price stability. such anchoring is a prerequisite for monetary policy to make an ongoing contribution towards supporting sustainable economic growth and job creation in the euro area. also after today ’ s increase, the key ecb interest rates remain at low levels, money and credit growth are strong, and liquidity in the euro area is ample by all plausible measures. our monetary policy therefore continues to be accommodative. if our assumptions and baseline scenario are confirmed, it will remain warranted to further withdraw monetary accommodation. the governing council will therefore continue to monitor very closely all developments so as to ensure price stability over the medium and longer term. turning first to the economic analysis, the quarter - on - quarter growth rate of real gdp in the euro area for the second quarter of 2006 was confirmed at 0. 9 %. moreover, since our previous meeting on 31 august, eurostat has revised upwards the growth data for the two preceding quarters, thereby confirming that a significant acceleration in economic expansion has taken place over the past few quarters. on the basis of the revised data, economic activity has been growing at a quarterly rate of 0. 7 % on average over the last four quarters, the unemployment rate has been on a falling trend, employment growth has recovered and employment expectations overall have remained favourable. all in all, the economic recovery now appears somewhat stronger than on the basis of earlier data. it has become more broadly based and is mainly supported by domestic demand. the available