Efficacy of negative rates questionable

Haruhiko Kurodaand and Mario Draghi may be among the few economists who still think negative interest rates are a good idea.

The Bank of Japan governor’s decision last month to charge banks on some excess reserves, a year and a half after his counterpart at the ECB took a similar path, means that a quarter of the world economy is now in the sub-zero club.

Yet just 27% of respondents in a survey say negative rates will help Mr Kuroda reach his goal of boosting feeble inflation, and only 42% say the policy is succeeding in the eurozone.