You're right. I should've just stuck to 'discount rate' instead of interest or inflation. But that's a little too abstract for some. In finance interest rates

You're right. I should've just stuck to 'discount rate' instead of interest or inflation. But that's a little too abstract for some. In finance interest rates are typically used for the discount rate. But discount rates can be something else that's not directly related to interest rates, too. For example, suppose I buy gold and it appreciates in value by 10% per year. You could in a way call that inflation (inflation of the price of gold, typically due to inflation of the money supply). And if you were to calculate the value of x amount of gold in one year, in this case you'd use the inflation rate of 10% to discount it to the present value. I should've said discount rates, and in general discussions it's fine to speak of interest rates. Should not have mentioned inflation as it's confusing and often different from the discount rate.