How is icelands economy

The foreign exposure of Icelandic banks, whose loans and other assets totaled nearly nine times the country's GDP, became unsustainable. Iceland's three largest banks collapsed in late GDP fell 6. Three new banks were established to take over the domestic assets of the collapsed banks.

Two of them have majority ownership by the state, which intends to re-privatize them. Since the collapse of Iceland's financial sector, government economic priorities have included stabilizing the krona, implementing capital controls, reducing Iceland's high budget deficit, containing inflation, addressing high household debt, restructuring the financial sector, and diversifying the economy. Capital controls were lifted in March , but some financial protections, such as reserve requirements for specified investments connected to new inflows of foreign currency, remain in place.

No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Iceland Economy information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Iceland Economy should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.

For example, it assigns unemployment rates in increasing order, whereas we rank them in decreasing order. Page last updated on January 27, Economy - overview: Iceland's economy combines a capitalist structure and free-market principles with an extensive welfare system.

The export base is relatively narrow and largely based on natural resources, namely fisheries, energy intensive industries, and tourism and these industries are predominantly occupied by small and medium-sized businesses. Foreign investment is mainly concentrated in export-orientated sectors, with possibilities in new and exciting sectors in the field of information technology, environmentally friendly energy dependant industries, agriculture, water based industries and tourism which has grown increasingly in the last few years.

Industrial investment in Iceland has grown considerably since and is likely to increase in the coming years. Photos Videos Events Media Requests. Video Gallery.