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Historical interest rates

19 January, 2016 - 11:14

Germany experienced deposit interest rates from 14% in 1969 down to almost 2% in 2003

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Figure 3.10  

Interest rates throughout history have been variously set either by national governments or market forces. For example, the United States federal funds rate has varied between about 1% to 19% from 1954 to 2008, while the United Kingdom base rate varied between 15 and 3.5% from 1989 to 2008 1, and Germany experienced rates close to 90% in the 1920s down to about 2% in the 2000s 2, 3.