IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fip/fedfel/99956.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Rising Star: The Natural Interest Rate in the Euro Area

Author

Listed:
  • Jens H. E. Christensen
  • Sarah Mouabbi

Abstract

The natural rate of interest, also known as r-star, is a key variable for analyzing fiscal and monetary policy. A novel method of measuring this rate for the euro area uses a yield curve model estimated directly on the prices of bonds that are indexed to euro-area inflation. Estimates suggest that the euro-area natural interest rate declined persistently in the two decades before the pandemic but has risen notably in recent years. Projections using this methodology suggest that the rate is likely to increase further, albeit more gradually.

Suggested Citation

  • Jens H. E. Christensen & Sarah Mouabbi, 2025. "A Rising Star: The Natural Interest Rate in the Euro Area," FRBSF Economic Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, vol. 2025(11), pages 1-6, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedfel:99956
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.frbsf.org/wp-content/uploads/el2025-11.pdf
    File Function: Full text - article PDF
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Holston, Kathryn & Laubach, Thomas & Williams, John C., 2017. "Measuring the natural rate of interest: International trends and determinants," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(S1), pages 59-75.
    2. Davis, Josh & Fuenzalida, Cristian & Huetsch, Leon & Mills, Benjamin & Taylor, Alan M., 2024. "Global natural rates in the long run: Postwar macro trends and the market-implied r∗ in 10 advanced economies," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gabriele Fiorentini & Alessandro Galesi & Gabriel Pérez-Quirós & Enrique Sentana, 2018. "The rise and fall of the natural interest rate," Working Papers 1822, Banco de España.
    2. Alexander Beames & Mariano Kulish & Nadine Yamout, 2022. "Fiscal Policy and the Slowdown in Trend Growth in an Open Economy," Working Papers 143, Red Nacional de Investigadores en Economía (RedNIE).
    3. Veronika Grimm & Lukas Nöh & Volker Wieland, 2023. "Government bond rates and interest expenditure of large euro area member states: A scenario analysis," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 286-303, December.
    4. Norring, Anni, 2022. "Taming the tides of capital: Review of capital controls and macroprudential policy in emerging economies," BoF Economics Review 1/2022, Bank of Finland.
    5. Michael Patrick Curran & Matthew J. Fagerstrom, 2019. "Monetary Growth and Financial Sector Wages," Villanova School of Business Department of Economics and Statistics Working Paper Series 41, Villanova School of Business Department of Economics and Statistics.
    6. Rodolfo G. Campos & Jesús Fernández-Villaverde & Galo Nuño & Peter Paz, 2024. "Navigating by Falling Stars: Monetary Policy with Fiscally Driven Natural Rates," NBER Working Papers 32219, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Narek Ghazaryan, 2014. "Short Term Forecasting System of Private Demand Components in Armenia," Working Papers 3, Central Bank of Armenia, revised Dec 2015.
    8. Lars P Feld & Volker Wieland, 2021. "The German Federal Constitutional Court Ruling and the European Central Bank’s Strategy," Journal of Financial Regulation, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 217-253.
    9. Iryna Kaminska & Gabriele Zinna, 2020. "Official Demand for U.S. Debt: Implications for U.S. Real Rates," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(2-3), pages 323-364, March.
    10. Del Negro, Marco & Giannone, Domenico & Giannoni, Marc P. & Tambalotti, Andrea, 2019. "Global trends in interest rates," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 248-262.
    11. Maciej Stefański, 2023. "Natural Rate of Interest in a Small Open Economy with Application to CEE Countries," KAE Working Papers 2023-093, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of Economic Analysis.
    12. Long, Teng & Feng, Liyu, 2024. "Aging, low fertility and household debt risk," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    13. Ligang Song & Yixiao Zhou, 2020. "The COVID‐19 Pandemic and Its Impact on the Global Economy: What Does It Take to Turn Crisis into Opportunity?," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 28(4), pages 1-25, July.
    14. Mengheng Li & Siem Jan (S.J.) Koopman, 2018. "Unobserved Components with Stochastic Volatility in U.S. Inflation: Estimation and Signal Extraction," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 18-027/III, Tinbergen Institute.
    15. Jurkšas, Linas & Pereira, Francisco Gomes, 2024. "Fiscal stance role for ECB monetary policy," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 1210-1227.
    16. Döpke, Jörg & Fritsche, Ulrich & Müller, Karsten, 2019. "Has macroeconomic forecasting changed after the Great Recession? Panel-based evidence on forecast accuracy and forecaster behavior from Germany," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    17. Donaldson, John B. & Koulovatianos, Christos & Li, Jian & Mehra, Rajnish, 2025. "Demographics and FDI: lessons from China’s one-child policy," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 29, pages 1-1, January.
    18. Czeczeli, Vivien, 2023. "Az államadósság fenntarthatósága alacsony kamatkörnyezetben [The sustainability of public debt in a low interest rate environment]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(12), pages 1361-1388.
    19. Adam, Klaus & Merkel, Sebastian, 2019. "Stock price cycles and business cycles," Working Paper Series 2316, European Central Bank.
    20. Neri, Stefano & Gerali, Andrea, 2019. "Natural rates across the Atlantic," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedfel:99956. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Research Library (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbsfus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.