This means that together with the Swiss National Bank, we are the central bank that has operated with the lowest level of the key policy rate. While we have been at the forefront when it comes to low and negative interest rates, we are clearly part of an international trend. Policy rates are currently negative in Denmark, Switzerland, Japan and the euro area.
And in most other advanced economies, they are close to zero. This did  Page 1 of 7  not happen overnight. As you can see from this chart, policy rates have been trending downwards since the 1980s. Chart 1: Policy rates have declined across the advanced economies The secular decline in interest rates is no coincidence.