Translations:Advanced Field Epi:Manual 1 - Disease Control and Eradication Programs/213/en

The discount rate is also described as the opportunity cost of money. There are many different approaches to setting the discount rate. A reasonable approach is to use the real rate of interest which can be estimated as the nominal interest rate (cost of borrowing money) minus the inflation rate. If the market interest rate was 7% and inflation was 1.5% then the real rate of interest would be 5.5%. An alternative approach is to use an estimate of the rate of return you could get if you invested the money in an alternative investment with a similar risk profile (ie investing in a bank or in a financial market).