Real policy rate
Does money at the central bank’s rate actually beat inflation?
Policy rate minus annual CPI inflation — positive means money in the bank beats inflation. Our calculation from separately sourced components.
Brazil leads with 8.98 %; Estonia sits last at -2.58 %. Best-for-you first — higher is better here.
Coverage: 53 of ~35 countries this field can reach — Derived — needs BOTH policy rate and inflation for the country
Free to republish — just credit us
Fiatmap, “Real policy rate by country”, fiatmap.com/rankings/real-rates. Licensed CC BY 4.0. Underlying data: official statistics (BIS, ECB, FRED, Eurostat, OECD, World Bank, SSB), each value dated at source.
Embed this on your own site
Top-10 table (live)
<iframe src="https://fiatmap.com/embed/ranking/real-rates" title="Real policy rate by country — Fiatmap" width="360" height="440" style="border:0" loading="lazy"></iframe>
World map
<iframe src="https://fiatmap.com/embed/map/real-rates" title="Real policy rate by country — Fiatmap" width="720" height="430" style="border:0" loading="lazy"></iframe>
On the map
The full ranking
| 1 | Brazil | 8.98 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 2 | Colombia | 6.86 % | July 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 3 | Russia | 5.28 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 4 | Indonesia | 3.84 % | June 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 5 | South Africa | 3.79 % | July 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 6 | Philippines | 3.34 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 7 | China | 2.94 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 8 | India | 2.85 % | June 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 9 | Peru | 2.72 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 10 | Mexico | 2.69 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 11 | Hong Kong | 2.56 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 12 | Saudi Arabia | 2.17 % | July 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 13 | Cyprus | 2.12 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 14 | Finland | 1.91 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 15 | Morocco | 1.55 % | May 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 16 | Australia | 1.48 % | July 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 17 | Malaysia | 1.37 % | July 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 18 | Hungary | 1.34 % | July 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 19 | France | 1.31 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 20 | Czech Republic | 1.29 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 21 | Norway | 1.19 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 22 | Kuwait | 1.14 % | July 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 23 | Thailand | 1.13 % | July 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 24 | Sweden | 1.07 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 25 | Italy | 0.72 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 26 | United States | 0.67 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 27 | South Korea | 0.63 % | July 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 28 | Israel | 0.46 % | July 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 29 | Chile | 0.29 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 30 | Canada | 0.18 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 31 | Germany | 0.08 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 32 | Ireland | 0.04 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 33 | Luxembourg | -0.01 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 34 | Denmark | -0.04 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 35 | Poland | -0.06 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 36 | Portugal | -0.09 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 37 | Malta | -0.11 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 38 | Slovenia | -0.12 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 39 | United Kingdom | -0.13 % | July 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 40 | Switzerland | -0.15 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 41 | Belgium | -0.22 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 42 | Greece | -0.23 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 43 | New Zealand | -0.34 % | July 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 44 | Spain | -0.45 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 45 | Austria | -0.53 % | December 1998 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 46 | Romania | -0.69 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 47 | Netherlands | -1.01 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 48 | Croatia | -1.44 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 49 | Latvia | -1.50 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 50 | Lithuania | -1.54 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 51 | Slovakia | -1.75 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 52 | Japan | -2.17 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
| 53 | Estonia | -2.58 % | August 2026 | Checked 8 Sept 2026 |
Regional averages
Europe (30)
0.12 %
Americas (7)
3.20 %
Asia (12)
1.69 %
Unweighted mean of the published values in each region — our aggregation, not an official statistic.
How to read this figure
Our own calculation: the central bank policy rate minus annual CPI inflation. It answers one question — does parked money beat rising prices? Both components are separately sourced official figures, and we never compute it when either leg is missing.
Countries with the highest real interest rates · Countries with the most negative real interest rates
How to read this list
Policy rate minus annual CPI inflation — positive means money in the bank beats inflation. Our calculation from separately sourced components. 53 countries publish it; the rest are absent from the list rather than shown as zero. The figures were observed between December 1998 and August 2026 — a spread of 332 months — so this compares each country’s latest published number, not one moment in time. Every row carries its own date in the CSV and JSON; use it. Nothing here is estimated or carried forward to fill a gap. This metric is one column of the full dataset.
Methodology
real rate = policy rate − annual CPI inflation. The policy rate comes from the BIS central-bank dataset (daily, euro area applied to member states); inflation is the latest annual CPI from official statistics (World Bank, Eurostat, SSB). We only publish the derived value where BOTH components exist — a missing leg means no number, never a guess. Positive means money at the policy rate beats inflation; negative means cash loses purchasing power. Our calculation, CC BY 4.0; each component carries its own source on the country pages.