• A negative interest rate situation exists when overnight loan rates fall below zero percent.

  • In 2009 and 2010, Sweden and in 2012 Denmark used negative interest rates to stop hot money from flowing into their economies.
  • In 2014, the European Central Bank (ECB) introduced a negative interest rate that applied only to bank deposits intended to prevent the Eurozone from sliding into a deflationary spiral.
  • In a negative interest rate environment, financial institutions must pay interest on deposit funds and may actually earn interest on borrowed money.