This will mark the third year since we enhanced the disclosures to provide significantly more information about the stress testing models relative to earlier years.
In fact, the average contract interest rates on new loans and discounts – both the short- and long-term rates – have registered an unprecedented level of almost 1 percent, even lower than that registered during the first half of the 2000s, the era of quantitative easing (Chart 22). Under such circumstances, the average interest rate paid by firms declined to 1.49 percent.