Discount rate

Discount rate may refer to:

• An interest rate (the term "discount" does not refer to the common meaning of the word, but to the meaning in computations of present value)
  • The central bank's discount window interest rate
  • The annual effective discount rate, an alternative measure of interest rates to the standard Annual Percentage Rate
• The (asset appropriate) rate used in calculating the discounted cash flow value of a traded investment or corporate finance "project".
• theoretical or observed rates at which private or public sector entities discount future payoffs
  • in environmental economics, and more generally in assessing the general welfare impacts of government policies, social discount rate (the basic mathematics are the same as discounted cash flow, but the cash value of human lives etc. can only be crudely estimated)
  • in engineering economics (civil engineering) for public sector projects such as transportation, it represents the preference between the value of consumption today and consumption in the future; a social time preference rate or social discount rate (SDR)
• Fees charged for accepting payments other than in banknotes and coins:
  • bankers' acceptance rates for accepting bankers' acceptances. If a commission is included as well, this is known as the all-in rate
  • Discount rate under merchant account, the fees charged to merchants for accepting credit cards