Figure 4 Lending rates (weekly data, percent) Consumer loans, 3 or more years  Commercial loans, 30 to 89 days  Mortgage loans  40  40  20  20 6.5  6.5  35  35  16  16  6.0  6.0  5.5  5.5  30  30  12  12  5.0  5.0  25  25  8  8  4.5  4.5  20  4  20  Jan.08  May 08  Sept.08  Jan.09  May 09  Jan.08  May 08  Sept.08  Jan.09  May 09  4  4.0  Jan.08  May 08  Sept.08  Jan.09  May 09  4.0  Source: Central Bank of Chile.
A full normalization of credit demand and supply conditions will have to wait until the dust settles in the international financial scenario, to allow more clarity about global and domestic growth prospects. These risk factors have a direct incidence on credit risk premiums implicit in banking operations. We can see that the monetary policy action has more than offset the increase in risk premiums, resulting in a significant drop in credit costs, thus mitigating the effects that the global crisis has had on our economy. One important aspect of the access to credit, aside from its cost, draws from the effect of the environment of uncertainty and economic weakness on the credit approval conditions and credit demand. In these dimensions, we have recently seen signs of stabilization. Internationally, the various indicators of uncertainty and risk in global financial markets, while remain relatively high, have continued to fall. Domestically, the evidence at hand from the Banking Credit Survey for the second quarter of this year reveals that, on average, banking institutions have already stopped tightening their lending standards and perceive early signs of a recovery of the demand for credit. This is particularly evident in the mortgage segment, suggesting that the levels of the long-term interest rates on these loans are not necessarily holding back the demand for housing credit (figure 5).