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Volume 22 – World Interest Rates

This volume surveys long-term government interest rates in the G-7 countries.

All charts in this volume start in 1950, and use monthly data.

Nominal Yields and Spreads vs. US Yields

Each of the first six charts (example below) compare the G-7 (ex-US) rates to the US ten year constant maturity government rate. The top panel shows the nominal yield in the top panel on a log scale. The middle panel shows the nominal US ten year constant maturity government yield on a log scale. The bottom panel shows the spread (foreign yield minus US yield) on an arithmetic scale.

Canada
France
Germany
Italy
Japan
United Kingdom

The top line show the Italian long-term government yield on a logarithmic scale. The middle line is the nominal US ten year constant maturity government yield on a logarithmic scale. The bottom line is the spread (Italian yield minus US yield) on an arithmetic scale. The horizontal axis is drawn at the zero level. When the line is above the axis, Italian bonds offer a yield premium to US bonds. This is a 5kb thumbnail! It would take over sixty full SVGA screens to show the detail on one Topline chart. The real charts look much better than these thumbnails.

Real Yields

Each of these three charts compare the real yields of two countries to the real yield of the US. These are three-panel, portrait charts with arithmetic scales on all three panels. The US real yield is shown in the bottom panel of all three charts for comparison..
Germany, Italy and U.S.
Canada, France and U.S.
Japan, United Kingdom and U.S.

Real Yields: Each country's inflation rate (annual rate of change of its CPI) is subtracted from its nominal yield to calculate its real yield.

Comparable Log Scale Views

Using the Comparable Log Scale format, these three charts allow for a more direct comparison of the nominal interest rates. There are periods when all of the rates tend to move in unison, and periods when they each go their own way. These charts make it easy to identify those periods.

U.S., France, Italy and United Kingdom
U.S., Canada, Germany and Japan
U.S., Canada, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Germany and Japan

This volume was introduced in the December 1996 edition.

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Last modified: April 06, 2005