Iceland and the International Monetary Fund set at positive 2-3 percent by 2010. Additionally Iceland determined that it would not support the losses of its pension funds and social service programmes in order not to take up additional obligations. One of the primary objectives of the Icelandic government in seeking an IMF programme was to stabilize the ISK and to set a path for its gradual appreciation. To stabilize short term pressures on the ISK the Central Bank of Iceland raised interest rates to 18% and prepared to back the krona with its foreign reserves, specifically for which Iceland asked for an IMF programme . The
The Natural History of Iceland in an 1870 issue of "Notes and Queries": Although the contributor to "Notes and Queries" remarked that "Horrebow's chapter is ... not so ridiculous as generally supposed", the earlier English translation of the chapter is still much better-known. The phrase "snakes in Iceland" is listed in the "Oxford English Dictionary", where it is traced to the 1758 translation and defined as "something posited only to be dismissed as non-existent". The Natural History of Iceland The Natural History of Iceland () is a natural history of Iceland by Danish lawyer Niels Horrebow. It was first published in Danish in 1752 with