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Visualizing the 700-Year Fall of Interest Rates
How far can interest rates fall? Currently, many sovereign rates sit in negative territory, and there is an unprecedented $10 trillion in negative-yielding debt. This new interest rate climate has many observers wondering where the bottom truly lies. Today’s graphic from Paul Schmelzing, visiting scholar at the Bank of England (BOE), shows how global real interest rates have experienced an average annual decline of -0.0196% (-1.96 basis points) throughout the past eight centuries. The Evidence on Falling Rates Collecting data from across 78% of total advanced economy GDP over the time frame, Schmelzing shows that ... (full story)