Go to the CANSIM data available in the Student Resources section of your MyEconLab website and download monthly data (from November 1991 to December 2011) for the interest rate on long-term Canada Real Return Bonds (series V122553). This is a direct measure of the real interest rate.

a. What is the mean real interest rate over the sample period?

b. What is its standard deviation? (The standard deviation is the square root of the variance.)