Now is a good time for consumers and corporations to borrow money as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported lending rates at 7.5 percent since the start of the year despite the global economic crisis.

Bank lending rates have risen to 7.5 percent last year but have remained stable at the 7.8-percent average as of January to mid-March this year. Two years ago, lending rates hit its lowest point at an average of 6.8 percent.

According to BSP governor Amando Tetangco said Filipinos should take advantage of favorable borrowing conditions while the government can still afford to bring down lending rates.

The steadiness of bank lending rates, he said, indicates how the economy is better positioned now than in the 1997 financial crisis, where the average lending rate stood at 23.9 percent.

Lending growth has continued to accelerate as of January, with the year-on-year growth recorded at 18.8 percent as banks reacted to monetary easing by pushing their lending operations. Even as the BSP expected growth to slow down to half its 2008 level, core lending still grew 24.5 percent as of January 2009.

On the other hand, loans for production activities--which accounted for bulk of total loans--increased by 22 percent in January from 18.3 percent in the previous month. These loans went to agriculture, hunting, and forestry (which grew by 44.6 percent), real estate, renting, and business services (36.1 percent), transportation, storage, and communication (77.6 percent), wholesale and retail trade (24.1 percent), and electricity, gas and water (18.5 percent).