Chart assignment
Charts to read and discuss
Read each chart, then answer its questions. Every chart shows its source and date; open it for a table of the numbers and the data to download.
Chart 1 of 1 · Interest rates
What interest rate does a 30-year Treasury bond pay?
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The 30-year Treasury rate averaged 5.47% a year in October 2026, up from 4.64% in October 2025. It peaked at 14.68% in October 1981 and fell to a low of 1.27% in April 2020. Treasury stopped selling 30-year bonds from 2002 to 2006, so for those years the rate is an estimate from older bonds. The series begins in February 1977.
Questions to discuss
- In one sentence of your own, what does this chart show?
- Find the biggest change or difference in the chart. What might explain it?
- Who collected these numbers, and how recent are they? What else would you want to know before drawing a conclusion?
Source: Federal Reserve Board, H.15 Selected Interest Rates (monthly averages) (Public domain (Federal Reserve Board; cite the Board as the source)) · Data as of Oct 31, 2026
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