Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden will release a joint statement next week about the future of their economic aid programmes with Iceland, following President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson’s decision to send the so-called Icesave Bill to a public vote.
Further Nordic loans to Iceland have never been dependent on a resolution of Iceland’s Icesave spat with the Netherlands and the UK on paper; but in reality, leaders in each country have said that they are.
Icelandic Finance Minister, Steingrimur J. Sigfusson has spoken to his counterparts from all four countries over the last two days, making personal trips to Oslo and Copenhagen as well as phone calls to Stockholm and Helsinki.
The Minister’s effort already appears to be bearing fruit, with Bloomberg reporting an emerging consensus that the Nordic countries will live up to their commitments amid growing confidence that Iceland will live up to its.
“Norway stands by its commitments to Iceland,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store said in Oslo today. “It is Norway’s stance that the Nordic region should push for a continuation of the program within the International Monetary Fund.”
“What is essential is that Iceland’s government stands by its commitments, and we believe that they will,” he added. “Then we should make it clear to the other IMF partners that it would be extremely damaging for Iceland if we start to shake this foundation.”
So iceland is officially a country living on foreign aid programs… What a lack of dignity really. First claiming to be the richest nation in the world and now begging cap in hand for some merciful help from the countries they used to laugh at… I think this is a clear example of how sense of superiority and greed can make a nation blind and ignorant.
COME ON NORDIC LANDS WAKE UP AND SEE HOW THE ICELANDIC IS TRICKING YOU TO BORROW THE MONEY WHILE ICELANDERS STILL PARTYING AT THE WEEKEND LIKED THE WORLD OWN THEM THE MONEY BETTER SPEND THE MONEY HELPING THE POOR THIRD WORLD AS ICELAND SHOULD BE CLASSIFIED.
many bilions of dollars,euros was spent for the 3rd world but what is result? nothing for those money they have earned they could make a new luxury cities,countries but the money dissapeared as usually.
You cant forget that Iceland is still making bussines with other countries so even they do get some money from IMF or so they still do bussines too.
Plus how it would feel for the UK if Icelandic companies would stop making bussines and closed all companies in the UK, if I am right 500 000 people would loose jobs in Britain because this amount of jobs is connected to Iceland:D
“So iceland is officially a country living on foreign aid programs…”
America has been surviving on what is effectively enormous foreign aid from China for years…
Look at “What is essential is that Iceland’s government stands by its commitments, and we believe that they will,”
If you read between the lines I think Norway is saying rather diplomatically that it will stand by its commitments but only if they get the right result in the referendum.
Iceland saying that it will try to honour its commitments but doesn’t want domestic legislation expressly forbidding the country from defaulting isn’t going to be enough for foreign governments, international financial institutions or ratings agencies.
http://eng.fjarmalaraduneyti.is/news/nr/12286
It states the interest rate for these loans are based on the 3-month EURIBOR rate (which is artificially low now) plus a 2.75% premium. Looking at the history of this interest rate it seems that when the financial markets have settled again this rate could top 5%. Plus the premium that would be 7.75% interest. Does that sound like a good deal?
Michel it certainly doesn’t seem like a bad deal for a country which went bankrupt. If you see for example USA sovereign bonds, the 5-year ones have interest at 2.59% and the 10-year ones at 3.83% (and the USA didn’t go bankrupt like Iceland).
>… What a lack of dignity really.
The real lack of dignity is that Iceland still grants a work permit to someone like you.
Micehel. I seem to remember that the IMF loan is over 6% and the Faroe one is 5.25%.
I’ve always said that the British and Dutch missed a trick by not agreeing to the same rate as the Nordics. Difficult to argue that it’s too high, especially as people would tend to look at the current and not expected average rate.
And Icelanders think their negotiating team were stupid :) .
>I’ve always said that the British and Dutch missed a trick by not agreeing to the same rate as the Nordics. Difficult to argue that it’s too high, especially as people would tend to look at the current and not expected average rate.
Brumley your bluff is transparent.
The UK and Holland want to push the false hood of comparison with raising money from markets ( as Mike UK Nordic Analyst do say its wrong to compare like this when should be looking at merits and intent of deal itself ) when instead …
focus should be on what UK and Holland do to lend to their own equivalent compensation fund ( i.e. UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) the UK’s statutory fund of last resort for customers of authorised financial services firms ) which is charged 1.5% by UK for same class of loan ..
Interested readers see here :
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/07/the-emergence-of-icesave-empathy-for-iceland-in-uk-media/comment-page-1/#comment-109505
What are you on Fisy? What bluff?
Your position (a relatively new one it would seem as I’d not heard it from you (or anyone) before the last week or so) is that you want the same rate as the FSCS. As I’ve said elsewhere, I don’t know enough about the anti-discrimination rules to judge that one. Frankly, I’d be surprised if you do. Certainly it is odd that, despite the calls for lower rates, it’s only been recently that the FSCS rate has come up.
Don’t suppose you know the Dutch one?
Not sure what your point was about Mike, because I’m pretty sure he was arguing that like-with-like meant 5-7%. You do know that the FSCS loan is a 3 year one to a UK-backed institution, rather than a 15 year one to an Iceland-backed one?
If you want 1.5%, “To court”! :)
BTW, I feel that it’s time for my annual question as to why you call me “Brumley”. No hurry though; just as with the Kaupthing legal case thread. :D
DON FRANCO : “>… What a lack of dignity really.
The real lack of dignity is that Iceland still grants a work permit to someone like you.”
I DON´T NEED A WORK PERMIT IN ICELAND AS ICELANDERS DON’T NEED WORK PERMITS TO WORK IN THE EUROPEAN UNION. AND THANKS GOD THAT IT IS LIKE THAT SO THOUSANDS OF ICELANDERS HAD MOVED AND FOUND A JOB IN SWEDEN, DENMARK, HOLLAND, UK, GERMANY, ETC…
IF ICELANDES DID NOT HAVE JOB PERMITS IN EU MORE THAN 40.000 ICELANDERS WOULD HAVE TO COME BACK TO ICELAND, AND THEN CANNIBALISM WOULD START IN THE COUNTRY!!
SO SHUT UP YOUR MOUTH!! BECAUSE WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO EXPRESS OURSELVES WITH TOTAL FREEDOM OF SPEECH. WHATEVER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT.
AND YES, YOU KNOW YOURSELF ICELANDIC NEWS IN THOSE YEARS SPECIALLY DURING 2005 AND 2006, “WE ARE THE RICHEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, WE ARE THIS AND THAT”… WHAT A LACK OF MODESTY!!!
NOW IS SEE ICELANDERS TURN INTO A LEGION OF BAGGERS!! AND THAT IS WHAT I CALL LACK OF DIGNITY. NOW YOU NEED TO LEARN TO BE HARD WORKERS, AND LIVE MODESTLY LIKE ALL EUROPEAN WORKERS, NOT DRIVING EXPENSIVE CARS AND HAVING VERY WELL FURNISHED HOUSES WHILE YOU CANNOT AFFORD ANYTHING OF THAT!!
WELCOME TO REAL LIVE!! AND I HOPE YOU DON’T GET MORE MONEY FROM THE EUROPEAN WORKERS AND TAX PAYERS. YOU DESERVE TO BE WHERE YOU ARE. YOU ARE A POOR COUNTRY AND LEARNT TO LIVE WITH IT!!!
“The real lack of dignity is that Iceland still grants a work permit to someone like you.”
Don Franco, that is just a personal attack. Sir Euro, stated his opinion as a foreigner living in Iceland. If you disagreed, you should have stated why you disagreed. Remember, foreigners were brought to Iceland to do jobs which Icelanders didn’t want to do or were not qualified to do.
Dear West, I’m a foreigner myself and worked in Iceland for quite a bit of time :probably you don’t know SIR NEURO’s point of view about Iceland and Icelanders, you can get an example just in this post: http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/08/lithuania-follows-latvian-lead-by-expressing-support-for-iceland
No matter if some times he claims that he does so because of his love for the place and to give a shake to the people: from what he writes he just sounds like a frustrated racist with a huge inferiority complex.So,some times, it s nice giving an appropriate answer to this gentleman.Although most of the times he would not to even deserve one.
I really hope you vote for not paying. It was a risk investment to a privately owned bank, people lost their money. Thats what happens when you take risks. There is no free lunch.
I hope our government loans the money, no matter what the UK, EU or IMF says. Looks like we’ll do whatever is agreed upon by Nordic countries.
Greets from Finland!
Any news on a joint statement? This is all I could find (no datestamp, just post-veto):
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a.RzysqghSaw
Looks like I’m not the only one wondering what happened to the joint statement:
http://icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=16539&ew_0_a_id=356674