Financial constraints imposed on many companies by the global financial crisis "have eased over time," Christopher Kent, an assistant governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, said yesterday."External financing has become widely available at very favourable cost," he said."Primarily, this reflects the stance of monetary policy (both in Australia and abroad), which is delivering historically low levels of interest rates, ample liquidity and has helped to push up equity prices."A common refrain of firms in the course of our business liaison has been that neither the cost nor the availability of external finance have been factors limiting investment of late," Kent said. "Moreover, (non-financial) corporate balance sheet data indicate that many Australian companies currently hold relatively high levels of cash, suggesting that they have access to resources to finance investment when the time comes."