Important numbers

Unemployment

Directorate of Labour displays the rate of registered unemployment of labor by month.

Unemployed includes those who have no employment and fall under any of the following conditions:

Have sought work for the last four weeks and are ready to start work within two weeks.
Have gotten a job but have not started yet.
Waiting to be called to work.
Have given up on looking for work but if offered, they are ready to start work within two weeks.

Directorate of Labour also displays statistics on the number of registered unemployed daily. The Directorate of Labour sometimes does not get the information about people who have stopped active job seeking, or have gotten a job until at the beginning of each month. This explains downfall in the number of people in active job seeking in the beginning of each month. It assumes that more are registered unemployed but there really are every time.

Exchange rate

Exchange rate currency rates calculated in other currencies. The exchange rate tells you what 1 unit of the given currency costs in the local currency, icelandic króna.

In the beginning of 2009 trade index replaced the average exchange rate index as the primary measure of the exchange rate. Trade index measures the average changes in prices of currencies used in trade with other countries. If the trade index is high the icelandic króna is weak.

Source: Institute for Financial Literacy

Population

Population consists of all those domiciled in Iceland on a given day at the National Registry.

Population is released by Statistics Iceland 4 times a year.

External trade

Balance of trade is the difference in the value of exported and imported products to and from a particular country at a particular time period. Positive difference is a trade surplus, but negative difference is a trade deficit.

Balance on service is the difference in the value of exported and imported services to and from a particular country at a particular time period. It consists of transport, travel and other services.

The current account consists of balance of trade, balance of service and so called income.

Inflation

A simple definition of inflation is that it is the average increase in goods and services between periods. Inflation is calculated by Statistics Iceland, using Consumer price index.

Although you can set the inflation up in various ways the most common way is to show the percent change in the last 12 months. This means that the percentage change is the average increase in goods and services in one year.

Annualized rates in inflation shows us what each 12-month inflation would be if inflation was the same over the 12 month period as it was for the reference period. This corresponds to "Annualized rates, last month "inflation because inflation remained the same over the next 11 months as it was last month and "Annualized rates, 3 month" corresponds to inflation the next nine months, compared to the last three.

By comparison, 12-month inflation and inflation annualized for shorter periods can indicate inflation developments. If annualized rates, last month inflation is lower than the 12-month inflation it indicates that the inflation is going down and vice versa.

Source: Institute for financial literacy

Central Bank interest rate

Central Bank interest rates are the authorities way to try to influence the market. Most cases, these are interest rates on some form of central bank loans or deposits. The purpose of increasing these interest rate may be to reduce expansion and inflation or increase exchange rates.

Here the Central Bank interest rate are the interest rate the Bank decides on service with credit institutions in the form of so-called loans against collateral, but the business can get credit institutions to borrow money from the Bank for 7 days against collateral in securities.

Consumer Confidence Index

Capacent Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) measure expectations of the population of the future. The index is based on the results of five questions on the evaluation of the current economic situation, expectations for the economy, assessment of current conditions of employment, expectations for state employment and total income after 6 months.

The consumer confidence index can take value between 0-200. CCI value of 100 means that many similar future look bright eyes and dark. If CCI is higher than 100 it indicates that more people are optimistic for the future but if CCI is lower than the 100 indicates that more people are pessimistic about the future.

Change in index from last month.

Source: Capacent

Gross Domestic Product

Total value of all production in Iceland in a year, calculated by Statistics Iceland. GDP is the most common way to measure GDP, but it is also possible to measure the pure GDP by drawing the depreciation and debt from it.

Source: Institute for financial literacy

Enterprises

New registrations refers to new registered corporations by the Statistics Iceland. Statistics on new registrations is published annually by Statistics Iceland.

Insolvencies refers to the total number of companies taken into bankruptcy. Statistics on insolvencies is published monthly by Statistics Iceland, but the annual number is shown to simplify comparison with new registrations.

Real estate market

The index shows the price development of property or changes in the average price for each square meter. Housing is divided into 9 different categories and each category is determined based on total market share in the last 24 months.

Turnover in the real estate market shows the average turnover for the past 12 weeks.

Note that the turnover should not be used as evidence of price development because the property used for basis are of different size and type.

Source: Institute for Financial Literacy

Wage index

Wage index shows the development of wages from month to month. Increased indicator means that wages have generally risen in the previous month and vice versa. This correction is always appropriate to view in the context of inflation, because although the wage index will slightly rise the purchasing power of the wages will reduce if inflation rises faster than wages.

Base was stated in December 1988, which means that it was in level 100.

Source: Institute for Financial Literacy

Turnover

Total payments of all cards issued by domestic and savings banks.

Heimild: Institute for Financial Literacy

Debt

Liabilities of households to the credit system consist of liabilities of the banking system, pension funds, insurance companies, Loan Fund and various credit undertakings.

Overdrafts are part of household debt to banks and are usually the most expensive form of loans available in deposit institutions.

Heimild: Institute for Financial Literacy