Comparision of Interest rates...

Interest Rates keep on changin.. as change is needy... Either to inject money or to extract money... it is required..

rediff.com gave a great report on the same, lets see a gist of it.. 

India

• The Reserve Bank of India cut the repo rate or its key short-term lending rate by 50 basis points to 7.5% and banks' cash reserve requirements (CRR) by 100 basis points to 5.5 per cent.
  
• The repo rate or the short term interest rate in India has varied between 6 to 16 per cent from 2000 to 2008.
  
• GDP: $1.1 trillion

United States

• The US Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate from 1.5 per cent to 1 per cent to avoid a deep recession.
  
• The Fed has earlier cut rates from 2 to 1.5 per cent.
  
• In the United States the rate has varied between 1 per cent and 19 per cent from 1954 to 2008.
  
• GDP: $13.81 trillion
  

Japan

• The Bank of Japan cut its key interest rate from 0.5 per cent to 0.3 per cent - its first cut in seven years.
  
• Japan has the lowest interest rates in the developed world.
  
• GDP: $4.38 trillion

Germany

• Germany has kept rates unchanged at 3.19 per cent since July 2008. The key rate has ranged from 1.13 per cent to 3.32 per cent from 2002 to 2008.
  
• GDP: $3.32 trillion
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China

• In the wake of the recession, The People's Bank of China cut key interest rates to 6.66 per cent from 6.93 per cent.
  
• GDP: $3.28 trillion
  

United Kingdom

• The Bank of England slashed its key interest rate by 150 basis points from 4.50 per cent to 3.00 per cent to offset the impact of the economic recession.
  
• The UK's rate is now lower than the Eurozone for the first time in the life of the euro.
  
• The European Central Bank, which makes monetary policy for the 15 countries that share the euro currency, cut its key rate to 3.25 per cent.
  
• In Britain, the base rate has varied between 15 and 3 per cent from 1989 to 2008.
  
• GDP: $2.8 trillion
  

France

• The Bank of France expects to cut rates by the end of this year.
  
• The French economy is likely to slow down by 0.1 per cent in the third and fourth quarters of 2008, after a 0.3 per cent fall between April and June.
  
• GDP: $2.59 trillion
  

Italy

• In Italy, the key interest rate has been reduced to 3.75 per cent.
  
• GDP: $2.10 trillion
  

Canada

• The Bank of Canada cut interest rates to 2.25 per cent from 2.50 per cent in October 2008.
  
• GDP: $1.43 trillion