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In the Balance

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Factual: Money

The biggest financial stories and why they matter to us all.

In the Balance: How Low Can Rates Go?

Coins dropped into glass

30/07/2016 GMT

How Low Can Rates Go?

BBC World Service - In the Balance, How Low Can Rates Go?

Turning the laws of economics upside down in the search for growth.

How central bankers are turning the norms of economics upside down as they seek to combat persistently slow growth.

Are central banks running out of options to boost sluggish economic growth?

Five of them have introduced negative rates, violating one of the most fundamental norms in business and economics. And other ideas, once thought utterly shocking, are now being openly considered.

Martin Wolf, chief economic commentator at the Financial Times newspaper, talks with economists and central bankers, past and present, to examine how such policies might affect the way people spend and save in the future.

In an interview conducted in June he discusses “helicopter money” with Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda, and asks former Bank of England governor Mervyn King why many economies are still struggling eight years on from the global financial crisis

Plus, how much more tinkering can we expect from these experts and how much further might interest rates fall?

(Photo: Coins being dropped into a jar. Credit: Thinkstock)

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