By Gwladys Fouche
OSLO (Reuters) – Norway’s central bank is closely monitoring the current situation in financial markets and will be prepared for continued volatility, Norges Bank Governor Ida Wolden Bache told Reuters on Tuesday.
Stocks worldwide swung wildly on Monday as investors grappled with U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs that last week drove the biggest weekly drop for the U.S. stock market since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic five years ago.
“The uncertainty about the economic outlook is greater than normal, and I think we should be prepared for swings in financial markets also going forward,” Bache said in an interview.
“So our approach to this is, of course, to monitor developments very closely.”
She added the current situation on financial markets held “many differences” from the one seen during the COVID-19 pandemic and that the bank had not made any new forecasts for the Norwegian economy.
“We are not giving any new signals about monetary policy at this time,” she said.
When asked whether Norges Bank had been in touch with other central banks to discuss some form of coordinated action, Bache said: “No”.
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche, editing by Terje Solsvik and Anna Ringstrom)
