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Thursday, October 9, 2008

Iceland close to bankruptcy on meltdown fears

This volcanic island near the Arctic Circle is on the brink of becoming the first "national bankruptcy" of the global financial meltdown.

Home to just 320,000 people on a territory the size of Kentucky, Iceland has formidable international reach because of an outsized banking sector that set out with Viking confidence to conquer swaths of the British economy - from fashion retailers to top soccer teams.

The strategy gave Icelanders one of the world's highest per capita incomes. But now they are watching helplessly as their economy implodes - their currency losing almost half its value, and their heavily exposed banks collapsing under the weight of debts incurred by lending in the boom times.

"Everything is closed. We couldn't sell our stock or take money from the bank," said Johann Sigurdsson as he left a branch of Landsbanki in downtown Reykjavik.

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Economic Event Calendar

GMT+5:30 Event Vol. Actual Consensus Previous
Saturday, Jun 14
01:00 CFTC S&P 500 NC Net Positions 1 $-69.4K
01:00 CFTC Oil NC Net Positions 1 168K
01:00 CFTC Gold NC Net Positions 1 $187.9K
01:00 CFTC GBP NC Net Positions 1 £35.2K
01:00 CFTC AUD NC Net Positions 1 $-63.2K
Monday, Jun 16
04:00 Business NZ PSI 2 48.5
04:31 Rightmove House Price Index (MoM) 1 0.6%
04:31 Rightmove House Price Index (YoY) 1 1.2%
12:00 Producer and Import Prices (YoY) 1 -0.5%
12:00 Producer and Import Prices (MoM) 1 0.1%
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