As such, the total availability of funds to businesses has continued to increase at around its long-run average rate (Graph 9). Graph 9  BIS Review 130/2010  7  These shifts in funding patterns mean that movements in credit, by themselves, may not give an accurate picture of the overall availability of funds to businesses.
The trends that we have observed recently are not evenly spread through the business sector. The mining sector has made heavy use of internal funds while the property and infrastructure sectors have relied much more on debt. I will say more about these sectoral issues later.