OSLO, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Norwegian central bank, Norges Bank, forecast weak or almost unchanged krone exchange rate until 2022, newspaper Aftenposten reported Tuesday.
This came in the aftermath of the increase of the key interest rate on Thursday, the report said.
Despite sharp economic growth in Norwegian mainland since 2016 and low unemployment rate, Norwegian krone exchange rate, measured by the currencies in imports, has been even weaker in the first eight months this year than in the years following the oil crisis in 2014.
According to the bank, the reason might lie in Norwegian krone not being attractive enough on the currency market.
"We take the consequences of the experience we have. We have seen that the krone course has weakened," the bank's governor Oystein Olsen told Aftenposten.
"Weak growth in Norwegian exports, despite a sharp depreciation of the krone, may indicate that this is what we need to maintain normal activity. The krone exchange rate is at a new, sustained low level," said Kjersti Haugland, chief economist of DNB Markets, a leading Norwegian investment bank.
