What it is
The currency of Norway, a large exporter of oil and natural gas from the North Sea. It is a small market, and can move a long way when trading is thin.
Who issues it
Norges Bank, founded in 1816, issues the krone and sets the policy rate. It also manages the country’s sovereign wealth fund, which invests petroleum revenue outside Norway.
How it is commonly described
- Commodity-linked
- Issued by an economy whose exports are led by raw materials, so it is often read beside their prices.
- Risk-sensitive
- Commonly rises when investors are confident and falls when they are cautious.
Petroleum leads Norway’s exports, so the krone is often read beside oil and gas prices. As a smaller market it has tended to weaken when investors are cautious.
These are descriptions people use, drawn from how the currency has commonly behaved. They are not promises about how it will behave.
What typically moves it
- Prices of oil and natural gas
- Norges Bank policy, and how it compares with policy in the euro area
- Risk appetite, and how easy the krone is to trade at that moment
- The central bank’s currency transactions on behalf of the government, which it announces in advance
These are the things people who follow this currency usually watch. They explain how the market works; they do not say what the exchange rate will do next.
The scheduled releases to know
- Policy rate decision and the Monetary Policy ReportPublished by Norges BankExplainer: Rates
- Consumer Price Index, including the measure adjusted for tax changes and energyPublished by Statistics NorwayExplainer: CPI
- Gross Domestic Product, including the mainland economyPublished by Statistics NorwayExplainer: GDP
- Regional Network survey of businessesPublished by Norges Bank
No dates or figures are shown here: each publisher’s own calendar is the authority. The explainers are in Economic Events; a release without a link has no explainer on this site yet.
Its main session
London. The krone is traded mainly in European hours, most often against the euro.
At GIO4X
A short history
The krone was introduced in 1875, when Norway joined the Scandinavian Monetary Union with Denmark and Sweden. The fund that invests Norway’s petroleum revenue was established by law in 1990. The krone has floated since December 1992, and Norges Bank has had an inflation target since 2001.
Words worth knowing
A reference page. Educational information, not investment advice or a recommendation to trade. It gives no exchange rate, no interest rate and no forecast.