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The Global Insight

What is the difference between nominal rate and real rate?

Author

Michael Gray

Updated on February 12, 2026

A real interest rate is an interest rate that has been adjusted to remove the effects of inflation to reflect the real cost of funds to the borrower and the real yield to the lender or to an investor. A nominal interest rate refers to the interest rate before taking inflation into account.

Is an advertised rate a nominal rate?

Nominal interest rate refers to the interest rate before taking inflation into account. Nominal can also refer to the advertised or stated interest rate on a loan, without taking into account any fees or compounding of interest.

What is the meaning of nominal interest rate?

The nominal interest rate (or money interest rate) is the percentage increase in money you pay the lender for the use of the money you borrowed. For instance, imagine that you borrowed $100 from your bank one year ago at 8% interest on your loan. But the nominal interest rate doesn’t take inflation into account.

How do you calculate real interest rate with nominal inflation?

real interest rate ≈ nominal interest rate − inflation rate. To find the real interest rate, we take the nominal interest rate and subtract the inflation rate. For example, if a loan has a 12 percent interest rate and the inflation rate is 8 percent, then the real return on that loan is 4 percent.

Do banks use real or nominal interest rates?

The real interest rate can be less than zero if inflation is more than nominal rates. Rates that are published by all financial institutions, banks, corporates, etc. are nominal rates. Real rates are not published anywhere but these are derived rates.

Is APR effective or nominal?

Nominal and Effective Rates of Interest APR rates are nominal. APR stands for Annual Percentage Rate. The compounding periods are usually monthly, so typically k=12. An annual effective interest rate is the true interest that is being charged or earned.

What is the formula for calculating nominal interest rate?

The formula that represents the nominal interest rate linked with the real interest rate can be expressed as either:

  1. Real rate = nominal rate – inflation rate.
  2. Nominal rate = real interest rate + inflation rate.

What is the nominal rate of return?

The nominal rate of return is the amount of money generated by an investment before factoring in expenses such as taxes, investment fees, and inflation. If an investment generated a 10% return, the nominal rate would equal 10%.

What’s the difference between real and nominal interest rates?

This means that the real return will actually have been -0.5%. This is the real interest rate, and it is calculated by subtracting the rate of inflation (3%) from the nominal interest rate (2.5%). Nominal and real interest rates on short-term bank deposits in euro area countries

How is the real rate of interest calculated?

This is the real interest rate, and it is calculated by subtracting the rate of inflation (3%) from the nominal interest rate (2.5%).

Why is nominal interest important to savers and borrowers?

Borrowers pay the nominal rate and savers receive it. It’s not only the nominal payment that is important to both borrowers and savers, but also how many goods, services or other things they could buy with that money. Economists call this the purchasing power of money.