French Interest Rates: A Historical Perspective

This article builds and studies long-term series of French interest rates since the early 19th century: the central bank leading interest rate; the rate of the 3-month paper on the interbank market, the regulated deposit rate of saving institutions (livret A), the yield on long-term safe assets (government securities). Comparisons are made with similar series in the UK and US. In a historical perspective, the current situation (low real and nominal interest rates) seems exceptional and very different from previous periods of interest rate stability (in the 19th century) or low real rates (during times of high inflation). The current level of interest rates does not look like the consequence of a sudden break caused by the crisis; it continues a downward trend that started in the early 1980s.