Corporate foreign exchange news
Norway 'will be first to raise interest rates'
Thursday, 30 July 2009 09:42:15 GMT

Norway's central bank will be among the first to raise interest rates as the economy pulls up out of recession, Deutsche Bank has claimed.Speaking to Bloomberg, Henrik Gulberg, a London-based strategist at Deutsche Bank, predicted: "Domestic inflation pressures will be the main reason why Norges Bank will have to be one of the first, if not the first, central bank to hike rates in the industrialised world."He added that forex markets are factoring in the probability of an initial interest rate hike early in 2010.The country has benefited from strong oil production in the North Sea during the downturn, while record low borrowing costs and the largest economic stimulus package seen in three decades have also helped to fuel growth.There have been calls from industry groups in the UK for the government to ease tax burdens on oil and gas companies carrying out exploration in the North Sea, following Norway's lead. In March, Oil and Gas UK chief executive Malcolm Webb warned that the offshore industry faces collapse unless new taxation structures are introduced.



