However, Norges Bank’s tasks have otherwise varied over time. We manage the Norwegian oil fund, which was a natural step in light of Norges Bank’s management of foreign exchange reserves. The fund will not, however, be one of the topics of my speech today. 3 The origins of Norges Bank Norges Bank was established in 1816 as a limited liability company, privately owned but under the control of the Storting. It was Norway’s first bank. The Napoleonic Wars had been costly for Denmark and eventually led to hyperinflation. In order to secure confidence in the new specie daler, Norges Bank had to be independent. 4 The intention was to make it difficult  2  A. Cukierman (2008), “Central Bank Independence and Monetary Policymaking Institutions – Past, Present and Future”, European Journal of Political Economy, 24 pp 722–36. 3  For a discussion of the Government Pension Fund Global, see Gjedrem (2010): “Perspectives on managing the Government Pension Fund Global”, lecture at the Norwegian Polytechnic Society, 2 November 2010. 4  See also Carsten Smith (1980):”Bankrett og statsstyre” [Banking law and public governance], p. 39: “Det klassiske system internasjonalt sett har vært å knytte penge- og kredittpolitikken til en selvstendig stillet sentralbank [The classic system internationally has been to assign monetary and credit policy to an independent central bank].” Universitetsforlaget. 2  BIS Review 154/2010  for the government and the Storting to influence the central bank. The Bank’s headquarters were located in Trondheim, a 12-day journey from the capital.
The reason is that the inflation target, which is governed by regulation in pursuance of other provisions of the Act, provides the central bank with a suitable mandate. The central bank is no longer a limited liability company as it was until 1985, but a separate legal entity owned by the state. The central bank shall submit matters of special importance to the Ministry of Finance before making a decision. Although this submission arrangement gives the Ministry of Finance an opportunity to state its views, and obliges Norges Bank to consider them, it does not relieve Norges Bank of the full responsibility for its decisions. The text of the Act does not specify which matters are not only important, but of special importance. The preparatory works of the Act provide little guidance today. When the Act was under preparation, the interest rate was not a policy instrument, but had the nature of being an end in itself. It was rarely changed, and then only in critical situations for the Norwegian economy. In the period of exchange rate management in the 1990s, changes in the key rate were also linked to large currency inflows or outflows that might indicate substantial imbalances in our economy. In the past 10–12 years this has changed completely. Norges Bank operates a target set by the government authorities, and interest rate changes are nearly always small and rarely come as a surprise to economic agents.