Sighvatsson received the Doctor of Philosophy degree in economics from Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois, United States of America in 1990. Earlier he received the Master of Arts degree from the same university and a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and philosophy from the University of Iceland in Reykjavík.
Since February 2009 he is the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Iceland. Sighvatsson worked at the Statistics Office of Iceland from 1988 to 1989. He was an economist, Head of Unit, Deputy to the Chief Economist of the Central Bank from 1995 to 2004, when he became the Chief Economist and Director of the Economics Department.
He was Deputy Director of the Nordic-Baltic Office of the International Monetary Fund from 1993 to 1995.
