Norway's central bank will sell foreign exchange equivalent of 500 million crowns ($67.3 million) per day from in January after selling 250 million crowns per day December 1-12, it said in a statement on Wednesday. The bank is selling the currency because the government's transfers to its $860 billion sovereign wealth fund have been smaller than earlier expected and the budget is spending more of its oil related income.
The bank puts foreign currency to be given to the fund in a "buffer portfolio", which has now become bigger than necessary and the bank said it would gradually reduce the size of this buffer this year by selling foreign exchange in the market.