Today’s low interest rates are making it difficult for investors to preserve the value of their assets. After all, if the interest received is lower than the rate of inflation, the value of an investment will diminish over time. However, this state of affairs – a negative real interest rate on deposits – is by no means a new phenomenon that is unique to the prevailing low-interest-rate environment. As it happens, negative real rates of interest have been the norm, rather than the exception, over recent decades.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann has spoken out in favour of giving the monetary policy measures time to take effect. Speaking at the Bundesbank's inaugural Capital City Reception in Berlin, he said it was in any case unrealistic to expect the measures to have an immediate impact on inflation.