. on the other hand, many households have built up large financial buffers, including through offset accounts, and the household saving rate remains higher than it was before the pandemic. many households are also benefiting from the strong labour market, with a higher share of australians having a job than ever before. it is still difficult to know how all of these factors will balance out, but recent data continue to suggest resilience in consumer spending. graph 8 household indicators index national housing prices % saving ratio june 2022 = 100 $ b mortgage prepayments * employment - to - population % * stock of offset and redraw balances ; seasonally adjusted and break - adjusted. sources : abs ; apra ; corelogic ; rba we are paying close attention to these various uncertainties, but also recognise that there have been a number of developments that should prove helpful in navigating the narrow path. the first is that the supply side of the global economy is gradually improving and the demand for goods is stabilising – which means that a better balance of supply and demand is being established. shipping costs are declining and delivery times have shortened ( graph 9 ). many commodity prices have also reversed their rises following russia ’ s invasion of ukraine. graph 9 supply indicators index shipping costs * 2017 – 2019 average = 100 index delivery times pmi inverted scale 2022 2018 * global index of container rates. sources : ihs markit ; rba ; refinitiv it is also noteworthy that inflation expectations in australia remain consistent with the inflation target. in addition, wages growth has picked up, but not nearly to the same extent as in the united states ( graph 10 ). this is an important difference. while there are some areas where wages are rising very quickly in australia, aggregate growth in wages has not responded materially to the higher inflation and is not inconsistent with inflation returning to target over time. it is important that this remains the case and that we avoid the cycle of higher inflation leading to higher wages growth and then higher inflation – a cycle like that would end in higher interest rates and a sharper slowing in the economy. graph 10 wages growth * year - ended % united states % australia * measured by the employment cost index for the united states and the wage price index for australia. sources : abs ; refinitiv it is in this environment in which we have been increasing interest rates. since may, the board has raised the cash rate target by a cumulative 2¼ percentage points

inevitably a degree of imprecision in the estimates, this increase in lng exports is expected to boost gdp growth by an average of around ¾ percentage point in each of 2016 and 2017. through this third phase of the mining boom, the economy overall has been growing at an annual rate of between 2 and 2½ per cent ( graph 7 ). the quarterly readings for gdp continue to be affected by fluctuations in mining production due to the weather. but looking through this volatility, the data for the june quarter suggest that the economy is continuing to grow at a similar rate to that of the past few years. most other recent indicators are also consistent with a moderate expansion in the australian economy. measures of business conditions have improved and most are now above average. the unemployment rate has been little changed over the past year and the demand for labour has increased, with a rise in employment relative to the working - age population. the housing cycle remains in an upswing and household consumption is growing moderately ( graph 8 ). for many in the community, the fact that growth is occurring at only a moderate pace is disappointing. growth has been slower than we had become used to, and slower, i think, than we are capable of. and, in terms of our incomes, this has been compounded by the decline in prices of resource exports. as a result, there has been very little growth in our real income per capita for some years now, after a decade and a half of very strong growth. while this disappointment is understandable, we should not lose sight of the fact that our economy has shown considerable ability to adjust, and to do so in a way that has preserved both overall economic and financial stability. we have adjusted to the upside of a huge positive international demand shock without overheating and we are now adjusting to the downside while still managing to grow at a moderate rate. this is a significant achievement and is a testimony to the underlying flexibility of our economy. this flexibility should give us come confidence about the future. an important element of this flexibility is the exchange rate ( graph 9 ). when the terms of trade initially started to fall and the decline in mining investment was clearly in sight, the exchange rate was relatively slow to adjust. on a number of occasions, the rba drew attention to this. but the exchange rate has now adjusted considerably and this adjustment has continued over recent weeks. just as the appreciation helped stabilise the economy in the upswing of the boom in commodity