Forex berza

Norway's Finance Ministry on Friday announced the appointment of Oeystein Olsen as the governor of the Norges Bank starting January 1 next year.

Olsen, who was managing director of the country's statistics department, Statistics Norway, since 2005, will take over from Svein Gjedrem, whose second term expires at the end of this year. The finance ministry said Olsen will take office for a six-year period.

In October last year, Norges Bank became the first central bank in Europe to raise interest rate after the global economic crisis. The bank further hiked the rate in December and in May, taking the rate to its current level of 2%.

In the past three rate-setting sessions, the bank retained the interest rate to avoid krone appreciation in view of an expected slowdown in global recovery. But it did said that the central bank will gradually bring the interest rate closer to a more normal level.

Norway's mainland gross domestic product or GDP, which excludes crude oil and natural gas as well as services activities incidental to oil and gas, transport via pipelines and ocean transport, rose a seasonally-adjusted 0.5% quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter.

The government expects the Mainland economy to expand 1.7% this year and 3.1% next year following a 1.4% decline in 2009. The country's inflation slowed to 1.7% in September from 1.9% in August. The central bank has an inflation target of 2.5%.

Olsen needs to steer the monetary policy when Europe undergo a significant fiscal adjustment to reduce budget deficit. The government estimates 2011 non-oil budget deficit of NOK 128 billion.