Will rising interest rates discourage corporate borrowing and investment?

Nominal and real long-term interest rates paid by companies on their new loans have risen sharply since the start of 2022 in the United States and the euro zone. We compare nominal and real interest rates on new corporate borrowing, separating Investment Grade and High Yield companies, with profit margins (taken to include the growth rate of the price of capital goods when looking at the nominal interest rate, and to exclude the growth rate in the price of capital goods when looking at the real interest rate). We seek to determine whether the trend in nominal and real interest rates paid by companies will lead to a significant decline in their debt ratio and investment, still in the United States and the euro zone. The gap between profit margins and long-term interest rates is on an upward trend in the long term and has declined only slightly since 2022, enabling companies to maintain a high corporate debt ratio and investment rate.