Former Prime Minister and Central Bank governor of Iceland Davíd Oddsson said in an interview with British newspaper The Daily Telegraph on Monday that he had on numerous occasions warned against the expansion of the Icelandic banks before their collapse in October 2008.
Davíd Oddsson. Copyright: Icelandic Photo Agency.
In the interview, Oddsson claimed that the government, which at that point was led by former Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde, had turned a deaf ear to his words of warning and listened instead to the commercial bankers, Morgunbladid reports.
“We were told the central banks were being too pessimistic by the directors of the new banks, that they were old-fashioned and we should not be listened to. The government chose to listen to them, not us,” Oddsson said.
The former central banker also stated that while he had been harassed by the public last fall, he could now walk the streets again without bodyguards by his side. In fact, people are generally positive towards him, he claimed.
Now Oddsson plans to go back to writing short stories and tending to tree-planting at his summer house, as he said in the conclusion of the article.
Click here to read more about Davíd Oddsson.
