Long-term interest rates for France, Italy and Germany, Jan 2011 – April 2016

Long-term rates refer to government bonds – whose capital repayment is guaranteed by governments – maturing in 10 years. Just like short-term rates, long-term interest rates are generally averages of daily rates, measured as a percentage. Nevertheless, while the central bank sets the overnight rates and thus can influence short-term rates, it has much less influence on long-term rates, which are set by the markets. Indeed, given that these interest rates relate to government bonds, they are influenced by the state of the economy of the country that issues those bonds − notably its fiscal conditions, the growth of its GDP, its level of foreign borrowing, the productivity of its labour, its demographic evolution, and its current and expected inflation. This explains the variance in long-term interest rates between euro area Member States shown below.