To conclude on the economy, in its monetary policy statement issued on the occasion of the latest policy rate decision on April 10, the Board of Governors once again stated that the Bank’s most critical task was to reach the inflation target as soon as possible. The demand shocks of the past few years and unusual conditions in the global financial markets had delayed that process. There was no reason to surrender any ground in the battle against inflation. Thus the Central Bank continues to be fully committed to the inflation target. Financial sector You are familiar with the expansion of Icelandic banks to other countries, including Norway. This development followed the banks’ full privatization a few years ago. The three major banks all expanded their activities to other countries but followed different strategies. The record shows that their investment in financial services companies abroad was generally very sound. They have good and solid operations in other countries. Because of this development, the banks have become less Icelandic and more Northern-European, as demonstrated among other things by the fact that in 2007 the three biggest commercial banks derived more than half of their overall income from activities outside Iceland and the biggest bank derived about two thirds of its income from operations outside Iceland. They are therefore much less sensitive to cyclical developments in Iceland than before, or in any one country for that matter. The risks are much better spread than before. 2  4  Central Bank of Iceland: Monetary Bulletin 2008/1.
Lars Nyberg: Developments in the property market Speech by Mr Lars Nyberg, Deputy Governor of Sveriges Riksbank, at Stock market day, Malmö, 18 October 2003. *  *  *  Ladies and gentlemen, At the Lisbon summit in March 2000 the EU’s heads of state and government decided to initiate an ambitious reform agenda that would extend over the entire decade. The goal was for the European economies to become “the most competitive and dynamic knowledgebased economies in the world by 2010”. Today, I intend to reflect upon what has happened with economic reforms in the light of the Lisbon agenda, both in Sweden and in the euro area in general. But first allow me to thank you for your invitation to speak here today. As I’m sure you all know, the Riksbank attaches great importance to participating at various events and speaking on issues of significance for monetary policy and financial stability. This is perhaps most true of issues regarding the current stance of monetary policy, of which we were informed a short time ago in conjunction with the Inflation Report that we published last Thursday and which resulted in the decision to leave the repo rate unchanged at 2.75 per cent. The interest rate decisions in particular usually attract great interest from the public and the media, which the Riksbank of course finds very gratifying.