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The statistics for EU Member States published here relate to interest rates for long-term government bonds denominated in national currencies. Where no harmonised long-term government bond yields are available, proxies derived from private sector bond yields or interest rate indicators are presented.
The harmonised statistics are used for convergence assessment purposes, as stated in Article 121 of the Treaty establishing the European Community (the Treaty). Specific details are set out in Article 4 of the Protocol on the convergence criteria.
Table 1 shows the latest available harmonised long-term interest rates for assessing convergence among the EU Member States. The rates are secondary market yields of government bonds with a remaining maturity close to ten years.
Table 2 shows an MFI interest rate indicator for Estonia and an MFI bond yield for Luxembourg as no suitable government bonds are available to provide harmonised long-term interest rates for these countries.
The rates in both tables span the most recent 13 consecutive calendar months for which data are available.
| Countries | July 09 | Aug. 09 | Sep. 09 | Oct. 09 | Nov. 09 | Dec. 09 | Jan. 10 | Feb. 10 | Mar. 10 | Apr. 10 | May 10 | June 10 | July 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sources: ECB and European Commission. | |||||||||||||
| The latest data are available via Statistical Data Warehouse (SDW): | |||||||||||||
|
( 1 ) As Estonia has a very limited government debt, there are currently no suitable long-term government bonds available on the financial market. See Table 2 for a MFI interest rate indicator for Estonia.
( 2 ) For Cyprus, primary market yields are reported. The same applies to Bulgaria and Romania up to December 2005, Slovenia up to October 2003 and Lithuania up to October 2007. ( 3 ) A harmonised long-term interest rate is presented starting mid-May 2010. Before, the Luxembourg Government did not have outstanding long-term debt securities with a residual maturity of close to ten years. Therefore, the yield on long-term bond(s) issued by a private credit institution with a residual maturity close to 10 years is presented for the period up to mid-May 2010 and is thus not fully harmonised for that period. |
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| Euro area | |||||||||||||
| Belgium | 3.92 | 3.77 | 3.72 | 3.68 | 3.64 | 3.61 | 3.75 | 3.73 | 3.63 | 3.54 | 3.31 | 3.47 | 3.29 |
| Germany | 3.34 | 3.31 | 3.26 | 3.21 | 3.22 | 3.14 | 3.26 | 3.17 | 3.10 | 3.06 | 2.73 | 2.54 | 2.62 |
| Ireland | 5.45 | 4.92 | 4.91 | 4.77 | 4.82 | 4.88 | 4.83 | 4.73 | 4.53 | 4.76 | 4.86 | 5.31 | 5.32 |
| Greece | 4.89 | 4.52 | 4.56 | 4.57 | 4.84 | 5.49 | 6.02 | 6.46 | 6.24 | 7.83 | 7.97 | 9.10 | 10.34 |
| Spain | 4.01 | 3.79 | 3.81 | 3.78 | 3.79 | 3.81 | 3.99 | 3.98 | 3.83 | 3.90 | 4.08 | 4.56 | 4.43 |
| France | 3.73 | 3.59 | 3.59 | 3.56 | 3.56 | 3.48 | 3.52 | 3.50 | 3.44 | 3.40 | 3.08 | 3.07 | 2.99 |
| Italy | 4.37 | 4.12 | 4.09 | 4.10 | 4.06 | 4.01 | 4.08 | 4.05 | 3.95 | 4.00 | 3.99 | 4.10 | 4.03 |
| Cyprus | 4.60 | 4.60 | 4.60 | 4.60 | 4.60 | 4.60 | 4.60 | 4.60 | 4.60 | 4.60 | 4.60 | 4.60 | 4.60 |
| Luxembourg ( 3 ) | 4.46 | 4.15 | 3.94 | 3.85 | 3.87 | 3.80 | 3.76 | 3.69 | 3.60 | 3.51 | 3.15 | 3.01 | 2.98 |
| Malta | 4.61 | 4.51 | 4.49 | 4.44 | 4.45 | 4.41 | 4.50 | 4.49 | 4.33 | 4.18 | 4.14 | 4.13 | 4.13 |
| Netherlands | 3.76 | 3.61 | 3.58 | 3.53 | 3.52 | 3.44 | 3.47 | 3.36 | 3.37 | 3.32 | 3.02 | 2.90 | 2.85 |
| Austria | 4.04 | 3.76 | 3.75 | 3.65 | 3.60 | 3.61 | 3.75 | 3.66 | 3.53 | 3.46 | 3.21 | 3.20 | 3.07 |
| Portugal | 4.25 | 3.95 | 3.94 | 3.85 | 3.80 | 3.91 | 4.17 | 4.56 | 4.31 | 4.78 | 5.02 | 5.54 | 5.49 |
| Slovenia | 4.33 | 4.07 | 3.96 | 3.86 | 3.87 | 3.91 | 4.00 | 3.84 | 3.94 | 3.94 | 3.82 | 3.83 | 3.87 |
| Slovakia | 5.04 | 4.90 | 4.65 | 4.33 | 4.23 | 4.12 | 4.11 | 4.08 | 4.01 | 3.93 | 3.82 | 3.73 | 3.93 |
| Finland | 3.77 | 3.63 | 3.62 | 3.57 | 3.53 | 3.46 | 3.49 | 3.38 | 3.26 | 3.36 | 3.03 | 2.92 | 2.85 |
| Non-euro area | |||||||||||||
| Bulgaria | 7.56 | 7.77 | 7.45 | 7.08 | 6.53 | 6.61 | 6.65 | 6.05 | 5.82 | 5.94 | 6.13 | 6.21 | 6.05 |
| Czech Republic | 5.41 | 5.09 | 5.01 | 4.50 | 4.19 | 3.98 | 4.28 | 4.33 | 4.02 | 3.84 | 4.10 | 4.26 | 3.97 |
| Denmark | 3.74 | 3.60 | 3.65 | 3.60 | 3.62 | 3.53 | 3.57 | 3.50 | 3.40 | 3.34 | 2.93 | 2.70 | 2.72 |
| Latvia | 12.75 | 12.81 | 13.27 | 13.51 | 13.75 | 13.75 | 13.76 | 13.62 | 10.54 | 10.13 | 10.13 | 10.12 | 10.00 |
| Lithuania | 14.50 | 14.50 | 14.50 | 14.50 | 14.50 | 9.10 | 8.15 | 7.15 | 5.15 | 5.15 | 5.15 | 5.15 | 5.15 |
| Hungary | 8.81 | 8.40 | 7.91 | 7.45 | 7.37 | 7.69 | 7.62 | 7.69 | 7.16 | 6.57 | 7.07 | 7.60 | 7.39 |
| Poland | 6.19 | 6.08 | 6.17 | 6.15 | 6.14 | 6.22 | 6.13 | 6.09 | 5.72 | 5.57 | 5.72 | 5.87 | 5.84 |
| Romania | 11.46 | 11.46 | 11.00 | 9.13 | 8.24 | 8.66 | 9.05 | 7.92 | 7.11 | 6.97 | 7.27 | 7.10 | 7.18 |
| Sweden | 3.37 | 3.45 | 3.38 | 3.25 | 3.27 | 3.24 | 3.37 | 3.28 | 3.20 | 3.14 | 2.73 | 2.61 | 2.70 |
| United Kingdom | 3.55 | 3.45 | 3.42 | 3.34 | 3.46 | 3.60 | 4.01 | 4.02 | 3.98 | 3.96 | 3.60 | 3.14 | 2.97 |
| Country | July 09 | Aug. 09 | Sep. 09 | Oct. 09 | Nov. 09 | Dec. 09 | Jan. 10 | Feb. 10 | Mar. 10 | Apr. 10 | May 10 | June 10 | July 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sources: ECB and European Commission. | |||||||||||||
| The latest data are available via Statistical Data Warehouse (SDW): Estonia,SDW, Long-term Interest Rates | |||||||||||||
| ( 1 ) The current indicator represents a weighted average interest rate on new EEK-denominated loans to households and non-financial corporations with short, medium and long interest rate fixation periods. However, currently a large proportion of the underlying claims (on average 90%) are linked to interest rates with fixation periods of up to one year. | |||||||||||||
| Estonia ( 1 ) | 8.41 | 7.40 | 8.15 | 7.76 | 8.03 | 6.26 | 7.79 | 6.10 | 5.89 | 6.79 | 6.07 | 6.28 | - |
The csv files, which are updated on a monthly basis, contain the full monthly time series with historical data starting from January 2001.
Updates of the long-term interest rate statistics are released monthly on this page in accordance with a predetermined release calendar.
More detailed information on national interest rate statistics of the new Member States can be obtained from the website of the relevant national central bank.
Detailed information on national HICP statistics of all Member States can be obtained from the website of the European Commission (Eurostat): Euro-indicators.
The long-term interest rate statistics for the Member States refer to the monthly average interest rates for long-term government bonds issued by each country, where applicable, quoted as percentages per annum. The statistical framework for the definition of the long-term interest rates for EU countries outside the euro area follows the same principles as those that were specified and implemented in conjunction with the European Commission as part of the preparations for Stage Three of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).
All countries joining the euro area are regulary assessed by the ECB and the European Commission to see if their economies comply with the four Maastricht (or convergence) criteria. The fourth of these criteria concerns the level of long-term interest rates. Article 4 of the Protocol on the convergence criteria, as referred to in Article 121 of the Treaty, states that compliance with the fourth convergence criterion "shall mean that, observed over a period of one year before the examination, a Member State has had an average nominal long-term interest rate that does not exceed by more than 2 percentage points that of, at most, the three best performing Member States in terms of price stability. Interest rates shall be measured on the basis of long-term government bonds or comparable securities, taking into account differences in national definitions."
In preparation for the enlargement of the EU in 2004 and 2007, the European Central Bank and the European Commission have, together with the central banks of the non-euro area EU Member States, identified representative debt securities that can be used to measure long-term nominal interest rates and alternative long-term interest rate indicators where no suitable government bonds are available. The central banks of the EU have also provided essential input on national capital markets and their structure via several surveys, designed and undertaken jointly by the ECB and the European Commission.
The latest survey, the third edition, is entitled "Bond markets and long-term interest rates in non-euro area Member States of the European Union and in accession countries". Published in November 2004, it provides, for the first time, statistics for Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom, in addition to the 12 countries which have joined the EU since 2004. It thus includes 15 national chapters, each of which is divided into five sections. The sections describe the size and activity of the national debt securities markets, interest rates (including bond yields), as well as issues related to securities market regulation.
Since the survey was published, the statistical tables have been updated in the form of three addenda, produced in cooperation with the national central banks.
