Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Iceland criticises IMF, UK and Dutch

Financial Times:

Iceland’s prime minister has hit out against the International Monetary Fund and the British and Dutch governments for holding up recovery efforts a year after the country’s banking sector collapsed.

Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir, the prime minister, said that it was “not acceptable” that the IMF had delayed a review for months. This review is needed before Iceland can access more of its $5.1bn (£3.2bn) international rescue package.

She also renewed criticism of Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister, for his decision a year ago this week to use anti-terror laws to freeze Icelandic assets – a move that deepened Iceland’s crisis and damaged relations between the Nato allies.

“To stamp a friend and a long-time ally as a terrorist is an act we will hardly forget,” she told the Financial Times. “It hurts.”

Iceland remains locked in a dispute with Britain and the Netherlands over compensation for nearly €4bn (£3.67bn) of money lost by depositors in Reykjavik-based “Icesave” accounts.

Posted via email from Jim Nichols

No comments:

Post a Comment