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Interest rates are part of the fabric of finance, used for assessing rates of return on investments, determining costs of capital to firms, compounding and discounting cash flows, and as underlying variables in many derivative instruments. As interest rates change, so do values of associated securities, resulting in substantial risk to investors in these financial products. Interest rate risk measurement is often defined in terms of the sensitivity of prices to changes in interest rates. Duration is a measure used for small changes in rates, and convexity provides a correction to duration when the rate changes are larger. Forecasting how short- and long-term rates move based on macroeconomic factors becomes important for businesses in any country, as these rate changes affect borrowing costs and investment opportunities. Financial institutions carry out interest rate risk management using instruments such as interest rate swaps, or through more advanced approaches such as asset-liability management and gap analysis. |
