Monday, November 25, 2013
Negative Interest Rate On Euro
Central banks are in a "race to the bottom", or an effort to lower the
domestic currency to improve economic performance. The European Central
Bank (ECB) may soon see exactly how low it can go by implementing negative interest rates.
When a commercial bank makes a deposit with a central bank, the central
bank pays the commercial bank interest on that deposit. The ECB is
considering a negative interest rate on those deposits, which means the
commercial bank would pay the ECB for all deposits. The result is that
commercial banks will deposit fewer euros with the ECB and instead be
forced to put those euros in circulation. This would likely lead to a
euro devaluation.