% target. but that hasn ’ t been achieved at the expense of consistently high interest rates, and weak growth and employment, as many people feared that it would be. in fact nominal interest rates have been as low they ’ ve been for 40 years ; the overall economy has grown without interruption quarter by quarter - at an average annual rate of 2¾ %, which is comfortably above its long - term trend ; the number of people in employment has risen fairly steadily - and is still close to its all - time high, while the rate of claimant count unemployment has fallen from 9. 6 % to 3. 1 % - the lowest its been for more than 25 years. and what ’ s true for the uk economy as a whole is broadly true for every region of the uk, including the north west region. total output in the north west increased year by year from 1992 to 1999 - the latest number i have - though at a somewhat slower annual average rate than in the uk as a whole, at around 1¾ %. the number of people in employment in the region rose by about ¼ million from the end of 1992 to over 3. 1 mn in the past two years. and the rate of claimant count unemployment fell from over 10 % to 3. 5 % - still somewhat above the rate for the uk as a whole, but again the lowest rate for over 25 years. but i ’ m well aware that you don ’ t have to look far beneath the surface to see that at the sectoral or individual business level things are a lot more uncomfortable than these aggregate figures might suggest. to a degree that ’ s always going to be true. competition - at both the national and international level inevitably means the expansion of some sectors or businesses at the expense of others. yet it is a necessary driver of the increasing economic efficiency and higher sustainable growth rate that we need to satisfy our aspirations for improving living standards. but the stresses we ’ ve seen within our economy in the past few years go well beyond normal competitive pressures. for the most part they originate abroad, with, first, the asia crisis and its aftermath in the late 1990 ’ s, happily substantially offset, as far as the uk was concerned, by strong growth in the united states, but then last year by the sharp, synchronised, slowdown into negative growth in most of the world ’ s major economies. although the pressures were not confined to manufacturing, and were not uniform within manufacturing, manufacturing was hit harder than

speeches chart 9 : chart 10 : major uk banks ’ and lcfis ’ leverage ratios ( a ) ( b ) major uk banks ’ and lcfis ’ price to book ratios ( a ) maximum - minimum range weighted average us lcfis european lcfis european lcfis us lcfis major uk banks ( b ) ratio major uk banks ( c ) ratio 4. 5 4. 0 3. 5 3. 0 2. 5 2. 0 1. 5 adj. ( d ) 1. 0 0. 5 q1 adj. ( d ) 0. 0 sources : bank of england, published accounts and bank calculations. sources : bloomberg, thomson reuters datastream and bank calculations. ( a ) leverage ratio defined as assets divided by capital. assets are adjusted for cash items, tax assets, goodwill and intangibles. capital includes total shareholders'equity adjusted for minority interest, preference shares, goodwill and intangibles. ( a ) chart shows the ratio of share price to book value per share. simple averages of the ratios in each peer group are used. the chart plots the three - month rolling average. ( b ) assets are also adjusted on a best - efforts basis to achieve comparability between us gaap and ifrs with respect to derivatives and off - balance sheet vehicles. ( b ) excludes northern nationwide and britannia. rock ( from end - 2007 ), ( c ) excludes northern rock. data for co - operative bank are used for co - operative financial services. pro - forma data are used for rbs from 2007 to 2009. ( d ) revisions to us gaap accounting rules on consolidation from 1 january 2010 are applied to end - 2009 data giving a clearer measure of leverage. bis central bankers ’ speeches chart 11 : chart 12 : household financial surplus ( a ) illustrative estimates of debt held by vulnerable uk households ( a ) ( b ) uk usa euro area per cent per cent of unsecured debt per cent of secured debt nmg unsecured ( lhs ) bhps unsecured ( lhs ) + nmg secured ( rhs ) bhps secured ( rhs ) source : thomson reuters datastream, ecb and bank calculations. sources : british household panel survey ( bhps ), nmg consulting survey and bank calculations. ( a ) per cent of gdp. ( a ) vulnerable mortgagors are those with housing equity below 5 %, or housing equity below