Central banks’ acts of desperation

As the economic malaise stretches into its seventh year, central bankers are turning to negative interest rates – charging customers to hold their cash – to get business to borrow money and invest in growth

–0.05%
Hungary: Set negative interest rates in March 2016. First emerging market to experiment with sub-zero rates

–0.4% European Central Bank: Jun 2014. Cuts below zero in bid to lift inflation to 2% target

–0.1% Japan: Jan 2016. Money market trading plunges from over ¥22 trillion to just ¥4.68tr ($43 billion) by April

–0.5% Sweden: Feb 2015. Riksbank cuts its benchmark repo rate to boost persistently low inflation

–0.75% Denmark: Jul 2012. Sub-zero rates result in some mortgage holders receiving interest payments from banks

–0.75% Switzerland:  Jan 2015. Few banks are passing on negative rates for fear of losing customers

Zero
–0.2%
–0.4%
–0.6%
–0.8%
–1%

$7 trillion 
Government bonds worldwide offering yields below zero. Investors holding these bonds to maturity won’t get all their money back

Sources: Capital Economics, Bloomberg