Publication

A bubble in the American housing market – fuelled in part by so-called 'sub-prime' mortgages – was the catalyst for today's financial market turbulence. But the bubble was not confined to the United States. In Europe, house prices have also increased sharply over the last decade – more dramatically than in the US in many cases. The same is true of other OECD countries and emerging markets, where rapidly increasing incomes have put pressure on asset prices.