On 21 May 2021 the AER published a draft working paper on Rate of return and cashflows in a low interest rate environment. The draft working paper begins our considerations on:

• whether we are in a low interest rate environment;
• if we are, what the consequences are of lower interest rates; and
• does this suggest that there is something that needs to be addressed?

The draft paper also considers evidence in two consultant reports by NERA and Frontier Economics submitted to the AER in prior processes by stakeholders.

On Wednesday 23 June 2021 we hosted an online forum for stakeholders to ask questions of the AER and interact directly to hear each other's perspective.

The AER would like to thank those who presented at the forum, as well as those who were able to attend on the day to listen to the views of other stakeholders.

We invited interested parties to make submissions on our draft working paper, Rate of return and cashflows in a low interest rate environment. Submissions closed on 2 July 2021. This submission period coincided with our submission period for our draft working paper, Term of the rate of return. Many parties responded to both working papers in a single submission.

We received one submission after the closing date.