Editing Interest rate (section)

==Impact on savings and pensions==
[[Financial economist]]s such as [[:fr: Forum Mondial des Fonds de Pension|World Pensions Council (WPC)]] researchers have argued that durably low interest rates in most G20 countries will have an adverse impact on the [[funding]] positions of pension funds as "without returns that outstrip inflation, pension investors face the real value of their savings declining rather than ratcheting up over the next few years".<ref name="Reuters">{{Cite news|author=M. Nicolas J. Firzli quoted in Sinead Cruise |title= Zero Return World Squeezes Retirement Plans |url= http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKBRE8720T320120803  |work=Reuters with CNBC |date= 4 August 2012|access-date=5 Aug 2012 }}</ref> Current interest rates in [[savings account]]s often fail to keep up with the pace of inflation.<ref>{{Cite web|last=thesavingsguy|date=2021-11-16|title=Why You Can't Afford to use Savings Accounts for Saving - Ask The savings guy|url=https://www.askthesavingsguy.com/2021/11/16/why-you-cant-afford-to-use-savings-accounts-for-saving/,%20https://www.askthesavingsguy.com/2021/11/16/why-you-cant-afford-to-use-savings-accounts-for-saving/|access-date=2021-11-18|language=en-US}}</ref>

From 1982 until 2012, most Western economies experienced a period of low inflation combined with relatively high returns on investments across all [[asset class]]es including government bonds. This brought a certain sense of complacency{{citation needed|date=April 2019}} amongst some pension [[actuarial]] consultants and [[regulator (economics)|regulators]], making it seem reasonable to use optimistic economic assumptions to calculate the [[present value]] of future pension liabilities.