NEWS

Annual address by Governor Øystein Olsen to the Supervisory Council of Norges Bank on Thursday, 18 February 2021.

One year ago, I stood here and delivered the annual address to 300 guests. This year is different. This evening there are no guests physically present at the central bank. The contrast with last year could hardly be greater.

The same also goes for the theme running through this evening’s speech – the Covid-19 pandemic. Not a trace of it can be found in last year’s speech. Yet, contagion was lurking right outside our borders. We sensed that something was brewing. Norges Bank was in the process of revising down its economic forecasts. The employees at our Shanghai office had been sent home, yet we did not foresee how far-reaching the outbreak in Wuhan would be. Two weeks after delivering last year’s speech the first case was recorded in Norway – soon thereafter, Norway went into lockdown.

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