The cash prize of 10 million kronor (1.2 million dollars, 922,700 euros) for each Nobel category will remain unchanged this year, despite the recession, the Nobel Foundation said Friday. The organisation - which manages the vast fortune left by Swedish inventor and prize creator Alfred Nobel upon his death in 1896 - said its profitability, or return on equity, was minus 19 percent at the end of 2008.
Net assets dropped by 22.3 percent, while invested capital - primarily stocks and bonds - amounted to 2.83 billion kronor at year-end. Nonetheless, "the 2009 Nobel prize has been set at 10 million kronor per prize," the foundation said. The prize sum has been stable at 10 million kronor for several years now, but has fluctuated in the past depending on the foundation's finances.
The money is shared if the prize is awarded to more than one laureate in each discipline. The winners of the prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry, economics, literature and peace are traditionally announced in October, and presented to the laureates at a gala ceremony in December. The dates for this year's announcements have yet to be disclosed.
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