The average contracted interest rates on new loans and discounts are on a declining trend. Various surveys show that firms consider financial institutions’ lending attitudes as being on an improving trend and that the financial positions of firms are on an improving trend. As for risk assets, credit spreads on CP and corporate bonds widened somewhat soon after the earthquake.
However, they declined rather quickly encouraged by the Bank’s outright purchases. Issuing conditions for corporate bonds have remained favorable: credit spreads on corporate bonds have remained stable at low levels and the variety of corporate bond issuers has increased.