Credit Crisis Indicators are easing

Lending rates continued to fall Friday, a sign that the government's numerous plans to ease the credit crisis are taking effect.

The overnight Libor rate fell for the fifth-straight day to 0.41% from 0.73% on Tuesday, according to the British Bankers' Association. It was overnight Libor's lowest level since the BBA began calculating the rate in 1997.

The 3-month Libor rate also dropped to 3.03% from 3.19% on Thursday.

Libor, the London Interbank Offered Rate, is a daily average of what 16 different banks charge other banks to lend money in the U.K.

Lending rates have been trending downward for the past several weeks. Just a month ago, 3-month Libor was over 4%, and the overnight rate was at an all-time high of 6.88%. Lower rates are a major boost for the strangled credit market, as more than $350 trillion in assets are tied to Libor.

"The credit crisis is tentatively solved - money is available to those who need it," said Pierre Ellis, senior economist at Decision Economics. "The next step is to get banks to trust each other, but that won't happen until we have a period of sustained stability."