Then I will take a step back and look at where interest rates may be going two or three years into the future and beyond. I will consider the question of where interest rates are likely to settle once inflation has normalized, and whether we may be entering a new environment of higher interest rates.
To do this, I’ll explore some of the factors that influenced interest rates in the decades before the COVID-19 pandemic and then discuss why these forces may now be shifting. The long-term path of interest rates is an important consideration for many household and business decisions.