Because of my girlfriend’s studies, I have been travelling back and forth to Glasgow, UK quite a lot in the last two school-years. I have been here since Thursday and it is a whole new experience.
Last year the exchange rate hovered around 120-140 ISK per GBP. Icelandair offered tickets for 23.990 ISK, a cup of coffee at a place like Starbucks would cost around 360 ISK (compared to 360-420 in Iceland), a beer would cost 460 ISK (compared to 600-750 in Iceland) and a meal for two at a sushi-place would cost you 2.000 ISK compared to 3.000-4.000 in Iceland.
Now the exchange rate is around 215 ISK per GBP, I bought a ticket for 46.990 ISK from Icelandair, a 100% increase. Starbucks now costs 600 ISK, a beer is in the Icelandic price range of 750 ISK and the sushi dinner costs 3.225 ISK.
So my money goes a shorter way than last year. Which is something I will have to swallow as a visitor, but now imagine living here on student loans from Iceland. Last years rent, a respectable 350 GBP for one in a shared accomodation, came in at 45.550 iSk, just under what you would pay in Reykjavik. Now it is 75.250 ISK.
Tuition is around 11.000 GBP a year. Last year it was 1.43 million ISK. This year it is 2.36 million ISK.
So here you can see another economic car-crash where the victims are unsuspecting passerby’s. What did the Icelandic students do so that their purchasing power is now half from only a year ago? Why do they have to pay 1 million ISK more than one year ago? Is it because they are getting so much better education, so many more hours, that much better opportunities?
No, it is just because they happened to be born in the same country as the Icelandic krona.
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December 1st, 2008 → 10:06 am @ Dadi
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