As with all products, it is the relation between supply and demand for money in the market for loans and savings that determines the price – the interest rate. If savings are in great supply or if there is little demand for loans, interest rates are low. Changes in the relation between supply and demand are subject to long-term trends that even the European Central Bank (ECB) cannot change. Trends like globalisation, population ageing and increasing caution on the part of consumers and businesses, for example. As a result, the supply of savings has increased worldwide. On top of that, the COVID-19 crisis has increased people's tendency to save. The demand for loans has gone down as a result of lower public investment and the growing share of the services sector in the economy. This explains, together with the drop in inflation, why interest rates have gone down.