Global Negative Interest Rates Era: From Its Emergence to Its End

The 2008 global financial crisis led to the "Zero Lower Bound (ZLB) constraint" in major economies, with the global natural rate of interest falling. This paper examines the negative interest rate practices of six major economies, focusing on anti-deflationary and exchange rate stabilization policies. The study finds that these policies were partially effective in the short term but had long-term costs. Countries exiting these policies were motivated by unsustainable structural contradictions, exhausting policy space, and institutional innovations. The paper concludes that Negative Interest Rate Policy (NIRP) is a temporary crisis-response tool, not a long-term solution. It fails to address structural deflation and can trigger financial distortions, affecting the real economy. Monetary policy alone cannot resolve structural economic issues, and must coordinate with fiscal policy and industrial reforms for sustainable growth.