Reuters ahead on Norwegian rate hike

Reuters led other news sources in reporting Norway’s surprise Dec. 16 rate hike, which pushed the Norwegian crown up sharply. Markets had expected no change after Norway became in October the first European country to raise rates since the world financial crisis bit; but the central bank said in December that its initial hike had not had enough impact on commercial lending rates. Reuters was two seconds ahead of Bloomberg, 13 before Market News and nearly a minute before Dow Jones with the central bank’s decision; it was also far ahead, including 15 seconds before Bloomberg, on the central bank’s statement indicating it expected no further rate moves before the end of March. The long vertical line in the middle of the graph shows the crown’s jump against the euro immediately after the rate decision, from 8.45 to 8.36.