The Central Bank of Iceland has today decided to keep its benchmark interest unchanged this month and has predicted ongoing economic growth, despite international economic turmoil. Read the full story

The Norwegian foreign ministry has announced that it has begun training aspiring diplomats in True Norwegian Black Metal (TNBM), as the musical genre increasingly becomes a cornerstone of Norwegian culture. Read the full story

The director of the Confederation of Icelandic Employers (SA) says he does not believe the Central Bank of Iceland is about to halt its run of regular interest rate cuts — adding that he feels interest rates must be further reduced to make Icelandic companies internationally competitive. Read the full story

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has declared that policy interest rates in Norway will need to be raised in order to keep inflation under control, while over-budget spending will also need to be reined in. Read the full story

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has voted to lower Central Bank interest rates by 0.5 percentage points. The deposit rate (current account rate) will be 7.0%, and the maximum bid rate for 28-day certificates of deposit (CDs) will be 8.25%. The seven-day collateral lending rate will be 8.5% and the overnight lending rate 10.0%. Read the full story

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Iceland has decided to hold the policy interest rate unchanged at 12.0 percent. Interest rates on current accounts are unchanged at 9.5 percent. Other Central Bank interest rates are also unchanged.

From Sedlabanki.is (Central Bank of Iceland)

The Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank, has raised the interest rate to 4.5 per cent, it’s highest in 12 years, and has suggested it could go higher.

The one quarter of a percent raise of the one-week repo rate is part of measures to combat inflation, and fulfils predictions of economic observers.

“The substantial rises in food and oil prices risk leading to other prices rising too quickly,” the central bank said in a statement.

“The repo rate needs to be raised now and on a couple of further occasions during the year to bring inflation back towards the target a couple of years ahead.”

With spiralling oil prices and economic fallout from the US sub-prime crisis, the bank had little choice but to follow the example of Norway a week earlier, amid rumours the European Central Bank is also imminently going to announce a rate hike.

Consumer prices in Sweden rose 4 per cent year-on-year this May, the fastest rise in more than 15 years. The growth rate has also slowed for six of the last seven quarters, growing just 2.2 per cent in the first quarter of this year.

“Inflation is already high and it’s going to go higher,” Dominic Bryant, an economist at BNP Paribas in London, said before the Riksbank decision.

This summer will see the launch of a new website service allowing users to find people all over the world who think just like them. User profiles will also be able to help make daily decisions and choices.

TellMeTwin.com gives users the chance to study and record their own personalities using personality tests and by rating various likes, dislikes, interests and experiences. The data is then mathematically matched with ‘twins’ who share similar interests.

By connecting similar personalities, twins can be relied upon to recommend things that users will probably like, such as what movie to see or what music to buy, or even to discuss medical treatments for shared illnesses. The TellMeTwin algorithms will even be able to figure out best romantic matches.

TellMeTwin is due for global launch in the summer, but is now signing up users to take part in its Beta testing phase.
The website is the brainchild of Icelandic entrepreneur, Einar Sigvaldason, who stumbled upon the concept whilst studying for his MBA at Berkeley in 2001.

“I founded TellMeTwin because I wanted movie and song recommendations from someone who I can trust to think like me”, said Sigvaldason. “I’ve also always loved self-psychoanalysis. I felt there was a need for an online application; not just personality tests but also a way to rate my likes, dislikes and life experience in order to map myself more deeply than before.”

Sigvaldason explains that the site’s slogan “Digging deeper” comes from the its dexterity in finding users’ most relevant twins out of a pool of millions through intelligent character mapping and mathematical calculations, with previously unknown depth.

Sigvaldason also emphasises the site´s total respect for personal information, pointing to its promise not to reveal subscriber’s personal information unless he or she expressly wishes it.

“On TellMeTwin there is actually a delete button, unlike many other sites who own your data. Your data is and always will be your own asset“, he explained.

For a chance to take part in TellMeTwin‘s Beta testing phase, visit www.TellMeTwin.com

A recent Dow Jones Newswire suggests that Iceland’s central bank may soon be raising their interest rates. The move is expected to occur following the release of inflation information from March by Norway and Denmark on Thursday. If the banks do increase their interest rate, it will be for the second time in just three weeks.

In a survey of economists conducted by Dow Jones Newswire, four out of seven believe that the Central Bank of Iceland will increase its key interest rate on Thursday. The move is expected to help offset pressure from inflation as well as increasing expectations about inflation rates.

This year has seen Iceland’s interest rates increase to unprecedented levels. The last increase came unannounced on March 25th, when the bank instituted a 1.25 percentage point hike, fixing the new rate at 15 per cent.

In the past six months, the declining economic conditions globally have particularly affected the Icelandic economy, with the country’s currency plummeting by 35 per cent during this time. The sharp drop in the value of the currency has only fuelled higher rates of inflation, rates which are well above what the Central Bank had predicted for the period.

In March, Iceland’s annual price rise rate was 8.7 per cent, whereas the bank had predicted a rate of just 2.5 per cent.