Interest rate definition

Interest rate

An interest rate is the percentage of money charged above the lender's principal – the amount of money loaned – for using its capital.

Global central banks set base interest rates to manage their domestic economies. Base rates are the benchmark all banks use to decide their borrowing and investment rates.

What is compound interest?

Compound interest is the interest calculated on loans or deposits; it includes the initial principal and accumulated interest from previous periods.

Compound interest is the interest earned on interest, resulting from reinvesting the growth, rather than paying it out.

Interest gets added on the principal sum added to the previously accumulated interest. This cycle leads to increasing interest and account balances rising at an increasing rate.

Three variables are needed to calculate compound interest: the principal (P), the nominal annual interest rate (i), and the number of compounding periods in full years (n).

Investing $10,000 over ten years at 10% interest rate, with the interest compounded monthly would generate a final balance of $27,070.41.

$17,070.41 is the interest earned and the effective annual interest rate is 10.471%

Search the Glossary

Look up the meaning of hundreds of trading terms in our comprehensive glossary.

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z