Nordic Nations Agrees on Iceland Bailout

Treating a seriously ill patient. *Iceland has after a long wait obtained a desperately needed bailout from the international community to resuscitate its shattered economy but experts warned that the recovery will take time. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a 2.1 billion dollar loan to Iceland to help the country 'restore confidence and stabilize the economy'. This made Iceland the first Western European country to be rescued by the IMF since Britain in 1976. Following the IMF announcement, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark said they would lend Iceland an additional 2.5 billion dollar. Both moves are aimed at stabilizing Iceland's finances and shoring up its currency, which plummeted after a series of bank failures in October. "This is a first step to get Iceland out of its current serious financial and economic situation," the governments of Finland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden announced in a joint statement. "The banking crisis in Iceland is of unprecedented proportions and has serious implications for the country's economy." Iceland's three biggest banks were nationalized in early October after being caught short of funding in the global financial crisis. The IMF recently forecast that the country's gross domestic product (GDP) was expected to contract by 10 percent next year. The government has meanwhile forecast that the public debt would increase from 29 percent of GDP at the end of 2007 to just over 100 percent of GDP at the end of 2009. ニュースアニメ「北欧４カ国、アイスランドへ２５億ドル融資で合意」 ノルウェー、フィンランド、スウェーデン、デンマークの北欧４カ国は、共同声明を発表し、金融危機の直撃を受け、国内大手３行を国有化したアイスランドに２５億ドル（２３７０億円）融資することで合意したことを明らかにした。このほか、国際通貨基金（ＩＭＦ）は２１億ドル（１９９０億円）の融資を承認した。西欧の国がＩＭＦの融資を受けるのは１９７６年の英国以来、３２年ぶり。支援策はまとまったものの、同国の危機観測は後退していない。通貨クローナの下落に歯止めがかからず、国内総生産（ＧＤＰ）の５００％超に膨れ上がった対外債務がさらに増大する可能性がある。数十億ドル規模の支援策では到底カバーできないとみられており、今後は追加融資に迫られるほか、最悪の場合には債務免除要請の可能性も浮上している。アイスランドの金融システムは、国内大手３行を公的管理下に置いて以降、事実上崩壊している。金融セクターの規模がＧＤＰよりも大きいため、銀行を救済できずにいる。

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YouTube | December 8, 2008