Latest news with #Sparebank1Sør-Norge
Mint
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
Magnus Carlsen breaks silence after defeating D Gukesh in ‘boring' match; ‘Come at the kings, you best not miss'
Magnus Carlsen called himself the 'king of chess' in a cryptic social media post after defeating world champion D Gukesh in the first round of the Norway Chess 2025 on Monday in front of a packed audience at the Sparebank 1 Sør-Norge headquarters. The face-off between World No. 1, Carlsen and Gukesh, lived up to the billing with the game going down to the wire. The Norwegian, playing with the white pieces, showed his endgame expertise, thanks to an under-pressure Gukesh, who made a losing mistake. Despite an early advantage, Gukesh struggled to control the game. Carlsen, who had featured in all editions of Norway Chess, went ahead by move 18 and did not let the Indian come back in the game. Celebrating the win, Carlsen posted a famous quote from a HBO series that read, 'You come at the king, you best not miss.' The 34-year-old also admitted he wasn't to happy to get into the end game. Magnus Carlsen's social media post after win over D Gukesh. 'I don't know if you should call it old school or more new because there were very little theories and by no means better, but I think we both wanted to fight. Eventually, I wasn't too happy to get into the end game because there's a little bit of imbalance there, but I think he did well for a while, we got into a position where both have passed pawns and then anything can happen,' Carlsen told Take Take Take after the win. One of the turning points in the game came when Gukesh made a huge blunder on move 46. Instead of a more accurate rook check (46…Rg2+), the India opted for a check with his queen (46…Qh6+). Thereafter, post move 51, Gukesh had no place to hide as Carlsen's king and rook coordinated a series of checks. Gukesh was forced to resign. Discussing his opponent's blunder, Carlsen said, 'When he played that, I wasn't sure if he was losing or not, but I thought he needed to give me a check with his rook and have an easier perpetual check.' Carlsen had also called the match against Gukesh boring after choosing one of the relatively easiest openings. 'I tried to surprise him. But I was surprised myself. I responded with the most squeamish move', said Carlsen in the confessional box before adding the match 'boring'.
Local Norway
09-05-2025
- Business
- Local Norway
Fresh inflation figures good news for Norway's interest rate outlook
Annual inflation in Norway between April 2025 and the same month last year was measured at 2.5 percent, figures released by the national data agency Statistics Norway on Friday showed. 'It was especially the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages that contributed to the drop in the growth rate,' section manager Espen Kristiansen said of the figures. Food prices fell two percentage points from March to April this year, but were only 3.1 percent higher than in April last year. This was 5.5 percentage points lower than March's 12-month food inflation figure. The slowdown in food price inflation between March and April was due to a late Easter this year. 'A significant drop in food price inflation was expected from March to April, partly because Easter fell in March last year, while it was in April this year. Easter offers pulled food prices down in April this year, while a similar effect last year occurred the month before,' Kristiansen said. Economists said the figures released on Friday were good news for consumers in Norway. 'Both [core and general inflation] are slightly down from last month, and we are really starting to approach the inflation target. It is slightly lower than Norges Bank expected, and that is good news for the interest rate outlook, Kyrre Knudsen, chief economist at Sparebank 1 Sør-Norge, told the newswire NTB. Meanwhile, Karine Alsvik Nelson, macroeconomist at Handelsbanken, told business and finance news outlet E24 core inflation came in lower than expected. Advertisement 'Core inflation came in lower than expected, which is positive, but Norges Bank will probably still be wait-and-see as they have been keen to claim that price pressures are more on the decline too soon,' she said. 'The driving forces are still strong with high wage growth and a weaker krone, so a cut in June is still unlikely in our view, even though the numbers today were lower than both we and Norges Bank had expected,' she added. On Thursday, Norway's central bank maintained its policy rate at 4.5 percent as inflation remains above its two percent target. "Trade barriers have become more extensive, and there is uncertainty about future trade policies," Norges Bank deputy governor Pål Longva said. "This may pull the interest rate outlook in different directions," Longva added. READ MORE: Sweden and Norway leave interest rates unchanged amid global turmoil Economists generally expect the first interest rate cut to arrive in the autumn, and the central bank said on Thursday it expected rate cuts to be implemented during the autumn.
