Real and Nominal Values

The nominal value of a good is its value in terms of money. The real value is its value in terms of some other good, service, or bundle of goods.

Relative price is another term for the real price of a good or service. When we say that the relative price of computers has fallen in recent years, we mean that the price of computers relative to or measured in terms of other goods and services—such as TVs or cars—has declined. Relative prices of individual goods and services can decrease even if nominal prices are all increasing, because of inflation.

Real versus nominal value
In economics, the nominal values of something are its money values in different years. Real values adjust for differences in the price level in those years. Examples include a bundle of commodities, such as Gross Domestic Product, and income. For a series of nominal values in successive years, different values could be because of differences in the price level. But nominal values do not specify how much of the difference is from changes in the price level. Real values remove this ambiguity. Real values convert the nominal values as if prices were constant in each year of the series. Any differences in real values are then attributed to differences in quantities of the bundle or differences in the amount of goods that the money incomes could buy in each year.

Interest
The real interest rate on money loans will be the stated (or nominal) rate minus the anticipated rate of inflation. In countries that are experiencing rapid growth in the amount of money available, interest rates will be very high. But these will be not be high real interest rates. Instead, they will be high nominal interest rates. If expected inflation is 10 percent, for example, and if the real interest rate is 5 percent, the nominal interest rate is 15 percent. But someone who lends money at 15 percent for a year will not be repaid with 15 percent more resources at the end of the year. Rather, the lender will be repaid with 15 percent more money and will be able to use that money to buy only 5 percent more resources.
 
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