Interest rates: the long run (Netherlands 1590-2012, 3 graphs,)

I’ve added the 2012 data to my interest data base (sources here, albeit in Dutch).

Graph 1. 2012 is indeed special: interest rates on government bonds are, with quite a margin, the lowest ever (graph 1). The very low Dutch rate is of course connected to crushing rates in southern Europe and a lack of borrowing by/lending to households and companies. In a sense the pre-Euro rates should be compared with the average Euro bond rate and not with the Dutch rate. Household rates in the Netherlands are however still pretty high, surely when we take ever lower GDP inflation into consideration.

Graph 2. Overnight rates are pretty low, too. Notice that these can be low for decades.

Graph 3. After 1980 the spread between government rates and the household mortgage rate shows a distinctive pro-cyclical pattern. Did anything happen around that year?

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