Thread: Interest rates in the world's top nations

Interest rates in the world's top nations

Check out the interest rates in the world's leading nations and in countries were the crisis has hit the economy badly...

Note: All GDP figures have been sourced from data available on the Website of International Monetary Fund (IMF).All GDP figures are of 2007.

India
The Reserve Bank of India cut the repo rate or its key short-term lending rate by 50 basis points to 7.5% and banks' cash reserve requirements (CRR) by 100 basis points to 5.5 per cent.
The repo rate or the short term interest rate in India has varied between 6 to 16 per cent from 2000 to 2008.
GDP: $1.1 trillion

United States
The US Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate from 1.5 per cent to 1 per cent to avoid a deep recession.
The Fed has earlier cut rates from 2 to 1.5 per cent.
In the United States the rate has varied between 1 per cent and 19 per cent from 1954 to 2008.
GDP: $13.81 trillion

Japan
"The Bank of Japan cut its key interest rate from 0.5 per cent to 0.3 per cent - its first cut in seven years.
Japan has the lowest interest rates in the developed world.
GDP: $4.38 trillion

Germany
Germany has kept rates unchanged at 3.19 per cent since July 2008. The key rate has ranged from 1.13 per cent to 3.32 per cent from 2002 to 2008.
GDP: $3.32 trillion

China
In the wake of the recession, The People's Bank of China cut key interest rates to 6.66 per cent from 6.93 per cent.
GDP: $3.28 trillion

United Kingdom
The Bank of England slashed its key interest rate by 150 basis points from 4.50 per cent to 3.00 per cent to offset the impact of the economic recession.
The UK's rate is now lower than the Eurozone for the first time in the life of the euro.
The European Central Bank, which makes monetary policy for the 15 countries that share the euro currency, cut its key rate to 3.25 per cent.
In Britain, the base rate has varied between 15 and 3 per cent from 1989 to 2008.
GDP: $2.8 trillion

France
The Bank of France expects to cut rates by the end of this year.
The French economy is likely to slow down by 0.1 per cent in the third and fourth quarters of 2008, after a 0.3 per cent fall between April and June.
GDP: $2.59 trillion

Italy
In Italy, the key interest rate has been reduced to 3.75 per cent.
GDP: $2.10 trillion

Canada
The Bank of Canada cut interest rates to 2.25 per cent from 2.50 per cent in October 2008.
GDP: $1.43 trillion

Brazil
In September 2008, Brazil hiked its key interest rates to 13.75 per cent from 13.00 per cent.
GDP: 1.31 trillion

Russia
Russia's central bank has increased its key interest rate to 12 per cent from 11% in a bid to curb the fall of rouble (Russian currency). The move is also expected to bring down inflation.
GDP: 1.29 trillion

Australia
The Reserve Bank of Australia announced a 75 basis-point cut in interest rates to boost the economy.
The key interest rates were slashed to 5.25 per cent.
GDP: $908.99 billion

SwitzerlandThe Swiss National Bank cut its target interest rate by half a percentage point to 2 per cent.
GDP: $427.07 billion

Czech Republic
The Czech Republic's central bank reduced its key rate by three-quarters of a percentage point to 2.75 per cent.
GDP: $174.99 billion

Iceland
Iceland's central bank raised its key interest rate to 18 per cent from 12 per cent, the highest in seven years.
The economy has been battered by rising inflation and high unemployment levels.
The IMF has forecast the economy will shrink as much as 10 per cent next year. The hike in rates was in accordance to the its agreement with the International Monetary Fund, from which it borrowed $2bn.
GDP: $20.23 billion

Such a variance ... ??

PLR in India will never come down below 7.5%. This is because there are lot of old retired people who live on MIPs from banks. They currently earn 10.5% on their FDs (when PLR is around 13%).

the interest rates are starting to rise again.
sign of good ?
look here World Interest Rates Table