Financial authorities of Norway ring the alarm. The worries arose after the national currency slump. One of the richest countries in the world is concerned about a further decline of the Norwegian krone which has shown a dramatic decrease especially against the US dollar. The Norwegians unlike the Russian authorities, who benefit from devaluation of the ruble, understand that in the long term oil-producing nations will face serious economic problems. The tumbling currency may lead to the lower liquidity and higher volatility as it makes difficult to plan investments. “It helps some of those industries that have been suffering a bit on competitiveness. But it’s not good for a country in the long run to have an unstable currency because you also need to be able to long-term plan when you are doing investments,” Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg said in her speech. Norway’s krone has plunged around 20 per cent against the US dollar over the past year, thus being the worst of the 10 major currencies. It also showed the highest volatility against the euro. At same time, the central bank of Norway has a different point of view. The Governor Oeystein Olsen thinks that a weak national currency helps exporters. The official does not characterize depreciation as volatility but relates it to the drop in oil prices. Russia’s companies work in a similar environment but unlike their European counterparts, they were able to adjust to the conditions. In general, it is more difficult for the western countries to get over economic turbulences than for the Russians. European countries are used to stability, and the Russians are used to pledges of stability, that is why they are on the alert even in relatively quiet periods.
