The risk of a further tightening in lending standards "has more of an implication for house prices, than it does for the outlook for consumption," Guy Debelle, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia told a business conference in Sydney yesterday.Debelle argued that this tightening "may have its largest effect on the amount of funds an individual household can borrow, more than the effect on the number of households that are eligible for a loan. "This, in turn, means that credit growth may be slower than otherwise for a time [and a drag on consumption]."He suggested that, "in thinking about the resiliency of household balance sheets to higher interest rates, it is important to think about the environment in which interest rates would be rising. "That environment is highly likely to be one where wages and household incomes are also growing faster than currently, improving the ability of households to afford higher mortgage repayments."