Negative Interest Rates and Its Impact on GDP, FDI and Banks’ Financial Performance: The Cases of Switzerland and Sweden

Abstract

The article deals with the issue of how negative interest rate policies, introduced in the second decade of the 21st century in some countries, affect certain macroeconomic indicators and bank performance. We concentrate specifically on Switzerland and Sweden. We use correlation analysis to reveal the relationship between interest rates and GDP, the level of foreign direct investment (FDI) and some indicators of banks’ performance. We found that negative interest rates (NIRs) are strongly correlated with the level of GDP in both Switzerland and Sweden but that they do not affect their FDI. The share of banks´ deposits in GDP is also strongly correlated with NIR. Other indicators of bank performance do not show a strong correlation for both countries. Our evidence is consistent with NIR not being associated with undesirable effects concerning economic growth and bank performance in Switzerland and Sweden. The value of FDI depends on many factors—mainly on the attractiveness of a country for foreign investors in terms of its political and economic stability and by general conditions for business operation.