Fisher Equation - Example

Example

The market rate of return on the 4.25% UK government bond maturing on 8 March 2050 is 3.81% per year. Let's assume that this can be broken down into a real rate of exactly 2% and an inflation premium of 1.775% (no premium for risk, as government bond is considered to be "risk-free"):

1.02 × 1.01775 = (1 + 0.02) × (1 + 0.01775) = 1.0381

This article implies that you can ignore the least significant term in the expansion (0.02 × 0.01775 = 0.00035 or 0.035%) and just call the nominal rate of return 3.775%, on the grounds that that is almost the same as 3.81%.

At a nominal rate of return of 3.81% pa, the value of the bond is £107.84 per £100 nominal. At a rate of return of 3.775% pa, the value is £108.50 per £100 nominal, or 66p more.

The average size of actual transactions in this bond in the market in the final quarter of 2005 was £10 million. So a difference in price of 66p per £100 translates into a difference of £66,000 per deal.

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