Icelandic president firm on repayments
- Source: Global Times
- [02:20 September 13 2010]
- Comments
Icelandic President ólafur Ragnar Grímsson talked to the Global Times on Saturday about the future prospects for bilateral clean energy cooperation between China and Iceland. Photo: Cai Xianmin
By Ni Dandan
The economy of Iceland has regained much of its vigor, but the country is maintaining a tough stance on a compensation dispute with the British and Dutch governments, Icelandic President ólafur Ragnar Grímsson told the Global Times during an exclusive interview in Shanghai over the weekend.
The president traveled to the city last week for the country's National Pavilion Day in the Expo Park, which was celebrated Saturday.
"It is not as bad as many people expected, including ourselves," Grímsson said when asked about the current economic situation in his country.
"The collapse of the private banks was a great shock to the country's economy. But fortunately, two years later, the Icelandic economy has been able to regain a large part of its strength," he added.
The latest figures released by Reykjavik-based Statistics Iceland earlier this month, however, indicated that the country's economy contracted for an eighth consecutive quarter in the three months through June.
According to the most recent estimate by the central bank of Iceland, the country's economy won't return to growth until next year.
However, Iceland's president remains optimistic about the economic outlook for his country. "Exports have every month exceeded imports. In addition, we now see the fishing sector, the clean energy sector, the IT sector, the manufacturing sector and the tourism sector being quite strong," Grímsson told the Global Times.
The president added that amid the domestic financial difficulties, people's lives in Iceland haven't been hit particularly hard. "The unemployment rate is about 7 percent, which is kind of high by our standards but low by European standards," he said.
Grímsson cited the success in the clean energy sector as a major contributing factor helping significantly lower the cost of heating and electricity for ordinary people, families, homes and businesses compared with the situation in other European countries.
In the meantime, he expressed appreciation for the goodwill and friendship that the leadership of China has shown to Iceland during the difficulties. "I was in communication with Chinese President Hu Jintao in the first month of the financial crisis. And this has resulted in a bilateral currency-swap agreement between the central banks of China and Iceland, as well as an agreement on energy cooperation," he said.
With a population of 323,000, Iceland was the world's fifth-richest per capita country as recently as 2007. The country is now relying on a $4.6 billion IMF-led loan.
