CD rates in the 1980sĪmid back-to-back recessions and high levels of inflation, CD rates surged to almost 20% in 1981. Read on for a decade-by-decade breakdown of how CD rates changed. In the mid-2010s, “CD yields continued to fall in the years following the Great Recession as the Federal Reserve kept benchmark interest rates near zero amid a sluggish economic recovery.” “Interest rates were significantly higher in the early 1980s as the Federal Reserve used high rates to corral double-digit inflation,” according to Greg McBride, a chartered financial analyst and chief financial analyst for Bankrate, CNET’s sister site.
In the 1980s, CD rates were relatively high: The average APY for a five-year CD in July 1984 was 11.80%. The history of CD rates from the 1980s to today
