Norway’s weak currency, the krone, has made it much more expensive for Norwegians to travel abroad and boosted the price of imports. The chief economist for Norway’s largest trade federation LO, however, doesn’t think it’s all that bad.
“It means more people (Norwegians included) spend their holidays in Norway and buy more locally produced goods,” Roger Bjørnstad of LO told the labour news organization FriFagbevegelse. “And it means good revenues for our export industries.” They’re by far the biggest and include oil, gas, seafood and many other products often sold in US dollars.
Even though the price of Norway’s oil has fallen, it’s still sold in US dollars. They now convert into far more kroner at the current exchange rate of NOK 10.54 to the dollar, than when a US dollar cost just NOK 6-7.
The weak krone has generated lots of concern lately, but it also helped generate a boom for the tourism industry this year, because American, British and other European visitors got a lot more kroner for their dollars, pounds or euros. Norway thus wasn’t nearly as expensive for them this past summer as it usually is.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
