HELSINKI, Finland (AP) — Four Nordic countries and the International Monetary Fund on Thursday pledged a combined $4.6 billion (euro3.64 billion) in loans to help Iceland recover from its economic meltdown.
Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark said they would lend the cash-strapped Atlantic island nation $2.5 billion, while the IMF approved a $2.1 billion support package announced earlier.
"We stress that, as outlined in the IMF program, an ambitious multiyear fiscal consolidation program will help Iceland stabilize the economy, including the exchange rate, and reduce public debt over the medium-term," the Nordic finance ministries said in a joint statement.
Iceland's banking system collapsed in October under the weight of the global credit crunch. The country's currency, the krona, has lost half its value since January. Banking transactions to and from the island nation in the middle of the North Atlantic have seized up, leaving its population of 320,000 virtually stranded.
Emphasis added by me.
Still needs watching.
And there should be some very interesting fiction coming out of Iceland in a few years.
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