◄Back

# Long description

The figure is a line graph. The horizontal axis shows years from 1980 to 2010. The vertical axis is a percentage scale from -5% to +20%. There are three lines. The first line shows real interest rates, which are negative in 1980/81 and again in 2010/11, but which are normally between 1% and 7%. The second line shows the official RPI inflation rate. This is highest in 1980, at over 19%, and lowest in 2009 at zero per cent. Most of the time it is close to the real interest rate. The third line is nominal interest rates. These are highest in 1980, at over 16%, falling gradually to less than 1% in 2010, apart from a steep rise to a peak of just under 15% in 1990.