“Standard & Poor’s yesterday added its voice to a chorus of warnings against a pledge by Iceland’s new government to write off as much as 20 per cent of all its citizens’ mortgage debt. The promise of debt relief was the main campaign pledge of the Progressive party and the Independence party. They focused on inflation-linked loans, payments on which soared following the country’s deep financial crisis owing to a 36 per cent depreciation of the currency. Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson said before the April election he would pay for the mortgage write-off through funds raised from imposing a haircut on foreign creditors of Iceland’s failed banks.”
