Difference between DECIMAL and NUMERIC datatype in PSQL

Right from the manual:

The types decimal and numeric are equivalent. Both types are part of the SQL standard.

As for the “why do I need to use it”, this is also explained in the manual:

The type numeric can store numbers with a very large number of digits and perform calculations exactly

(Emphasis mine).

If you need numbers with decimals, use decimal (or numeric) if you need numbers without decimals, use integer or bigint. A typical use of decimal as a column type would be a “product price” column or an “interest rate”. A typical use of an integer type would be e.g. a column that stores how many products were ordered (assuming you can’t order “half” a product).

double and real are also types that can store decimal values, but they are approximate types. This means you don’t necessarily retrieve the value you stored. For details please see: http://floating-point-gui.de/