Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for being with us, Governor.
I won't characterize your forecast as optimistic, which I did once, but I think I would still say that at 3.7% for the current year it's certainly higher than the consensus among private sector economists and others--and of course, it might be right.
But I want to raise the subject of debt. In your report, you say it's possible that the momentum in household expenditures could be greater than currently expected. I might have thought the contrary, because a lot of people have talked about the unprecedentedly high household debt—145%, according to one authority.
OSFI has said, and I quote, “The ability of households to service their debt obligations in the context of continued growth in credit and an environment of rising interest rates is an emerging source of risk for the medium term”.
Royal Bank, Standard and Poor's, the Certified General Accountants Association--various groups--have all spoken about this issue of rising debt. Rather than thinking that consumer spending might rise more quickly than predicted, I would have thought, especially if we do have rising interest rates, that the debt issue might be a negative factor that would slow down domestic expenditures.