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Iceland

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Settled by Norwegian and Celtic (Scottish and Irish) immigrants during the late 9th and 10th centuries A.D., Iceland boasts the world's oldest functioning legislative assembly, the Althing, established in 930. Independent for over 300 years, Iceland was subsequently ruled by Norway and Denmark. Fallout from the Askja volcano of 1875 devastated the Icelandic economy and caused widespread famine. Over the next quarter century, 20% of the island's population emigrated, mostly to Canada and the US. Limited home rule from Denmark was granted in 1874 and complete independence attained in 1944. The second half of the 20th century saw substantial economic growth driven primarily by the fishing industry. The economy diversified greatly after the country joined the European Economic Area in 1994, but Iceland was especially hard hit by the global financial crisis in the years following 2008. Literacy, longevity, and social cohesion are first rate by world standards.[1]

Economical characteristics

  • Currency: Icelandic króna (ISO code: ISK)
  • Central bank discount rate: 11.5% (31 December 2009)[1]
  • Commercial banks lending rate: NA% (31 December 2008)[1]
  • Stock of money (M1): $4.83 billion (30 September 2009)[1]
  • Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $3.44 billion (31 December 2008)[1]


Statistics

Statistic / Year 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
GDP (million USD)[2] 8 743 8 697 7 923 8 907 10 968 13 234 16 303 16 643 20 307 16 657
Govt. debt (% of GDP)[3] 60.778 60.458 62.657 58.898 56.736 50.438 39.374 44.373 43.187 83.777
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)[4] 33.837 33.317 31.155 30.897 31.754 32.923 35.338 35.269 34.948 32.591
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)[5] 30.700 30.452 30.737 31.848 33.284 31.876 30.734 29.411 29.823 44.786
Debt to revenue (years) 1.796 1.815 2.011 1.906 1.787 1.532 1.114 1.258 1.236 2.571

References

Note: statistical data was rounded. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named CIA_IS
  2. ↑ World Bank. "Iceland: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-21.
  3. ↑ World Bank. "Iceland: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-21.
  4. ↑ World Bank. "Iceland: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-21.
  5. ↑ World Bank. "Iceland: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-21.

External links

Retrieved from "https://wiki.freecapitalists.org/index.php?title=Iceland&oldid=2858"