In order to secure the best historians and economics researchers from the national and international arenas for the project, work is scheduled to start as early as in 2008. Norges Bank has allocated NOK 10 million for the first phase of the project (2008-2010). The project has been entitled Norges Bank Bicentenary Project 1816-2016.

The project steering group will comprise Professor Michael Bordo, Rutgers University, Professor Marc Flandreau, Sciences Po, and Directors Øyvind Eitrheim and Jan F. Qvigstad from Norges Bank.

- The aim of the project is to stimulate interest in the history of money in Norway at universities and colleges and to highlight Norges Bank’s role in society, in the past and today, says Executive Director Jan Fredrik Qvigstad.

Norges Bank has already conducted a large-scale project to collect and systematise historical statistics, which will make a very useful contribution to the bicentenary project.

The statistics project will be brought to a close with the publication of Historical Monetary Statistics for Norway - Part II on 13 December 2007. The book includes historical statistics for short-term interest rates from 1818 onwards, revised balance sheet figures for savings and commercial banks in the 19th century and historical figures for wage developments going back to 1726.

The first book was published in 2004 and included historical figures for consumer prices from 1516 onwards, house prices from 1820, GDP from 1830 and long-term interest rates from 1822 onwards.