Foreign affairs - Business and economics

Iceland will stop the EU membership negotiations right away

The Progressive Party and the Independence Party have formed a government in Iceland. Details regarding the government agreement are expected today. Bjarni Benediktsson, chairman of the Independence Party, said that the EU membership negotiations will be stopped right away.

Wednesday, 22 May 2013 12:20

Canadian pharmaceutical wants to buy Actavis

The Canadian pharmaceutical company, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, is in talks to acquire their rival Actavis. The price will be at least $13 billion (€10 billion) and if this will go through, it will be one of the largest trades in the health care industry this year.

Saturday, 27 April 2013 06:07

Chinese Investor Threatens to Withdraw his Offer to Build his Business in Iceland

Chinese investor and billionaire, Huang Nubo, expects a breakthrough in April on his multimillion-dollar deal to buy land in Iceland and threatens to pull out by May if no progress is made.

Tuesday, 26 March 2013 15:45

Wikileaks sues the boy who was interrogated by the FBI in Iceland

The young computer hacker that was questioned by the FBI in Iceland is being sued because of fraud and theft. He is also accused of having illegally profited from the Wikileaks T-shirts that were sold for funding of Wikileaks.

Thursday, 07 February 2013 12:18

Only 11 kg of lamb meat exported to Spain

The serious economic crisis in Spain along with high unemployment rate and the decrease in purchasing power has caused severe decrease in sales from Iceland to Spain. Export to the U.K. has also dropped significantly. Export to most other countries has however been stable or increased.

Friday, 01 February 2013 13:49

Bjork comments on Icesave case

Bjork congratulates the Icelandic nation on winning the Icesave case. Here is what she had to say about it:

Monday, 28 January 2013 14:04

Prime minister dances the victory dance at a press conference

As reported earlier, Iceland won the Icesave case before EFTA today. Just before a press conference about the matter, Prime minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir was asked if she wasn't stoked about the whole thing. She answered by doing the victory dance:

Monday, 28 January 2013 14:03

Want Iceland to pay for Icesave with electricity

Dutch politicians want to look into laying a marine cable from Iceland to Europe, carrying Icelandic electricity, to pay for Icesave. The Dutch Labour Party, PvdA, has promoted the idea but the party forms the Dutch Government with VVD (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy).

Monday, 21 January 2013 12:15

The surplus of balance of trade in goods was 75,700 million ISK in January-November 2012

Balance of trade
The value of exported goods from Iceland amounted to ISK 581,300 million fob and the value of imported goods amounted to ISK 505,700 million fob (ISK 544,700 million cif) January-November 2012. Thus there was a trade surplus, calculated on fob value, of 75,700 million as compared with a trade surplus of almost ISK 99,000 million in January-November 2011, at fixed rates of exchange.

Friday, 04 January 2013 14:01

EU negotiations continue

Iceland formally applied for joining the European Union on July 23rd, 2009. Negotiations are still underway. Many chapters have been negotiated but some difficult chapter are still to be completed. Negotiations on 27 chapters out of 33 have begun, and 11 chapters have been finished.

Friday, 04 January 2013 13:40