Credit and debit card use in Iceland has reduced considerably so far this year. Household credit card turnover rates dropped about 13.8 percent from January to May this year, whilst the debit card turnover dropped nearly 0.3 percent around the same time. The total turnover on domestic credit and debit card use between January and May fell about 7.5 percent.Icelandic credit card use abroad also dropped significantly – roughly 25 percent. At the same time, foreign credit card use in Iceland increased by 74.4 percent in the first five months of the year. Part of the drop can be accounted for by lower sales of big items such as electronics and new cars.
More statistics can be found at the Statistics Bureau, Hagstofa Islands, here. (though the document is mainly in Icelandic)
“How’s Iceland doing these days anyway? Last I heard their economy was in shambles, but didn’t hear anything after that.”
Things are stabilizing here, the main problem is the same as everywhere else in the westen world, the close ties between busyness and politics and the ventures of politicians into and beond the “grey area” of law, and how they have changed laws to plow the way for their owners, busyness men who have supported them.
USA and UK have much greater problems than Iceland,
lots of money printing will lead to inflation and further devaluation of the GBP and Dollar and high interest rates,
gold sets a new record every day now and is close to 1200 $ now, most people dont trust banks, and why should they, what people are realizing is when you put money into a bank you are lending to the bank, its not keeping the money for you, and it can gamble it away or simply steal it, if it disapears some how your taxes will just be increased.
I think the depression is just starting,
how does this happen one could ask, possibly because lots of money being printed and pumped into the market to create a boom, then the flow of cash fueling and supporting the boom is cut and the whole thing goes bust, then everything is suddenly for sale for a fraction of what its worth, this way those people can end up owning almost everything in the world and the only side effect is huge debt for the countries where the money is printed and slavery for the people who live there,
what the nations who end up with this debt can do is to refuse to pay, Dubai has refused to pay for the next 6 months, Iceland has refused to pay as people have noticed ;)
i hope other nations will do the same.
OMG, a third Jim!…
How’s Iceland doing these days anyway? Last I heard their economy was in shambles, but didn’t hear anything after that.
Just a suggestion: Iceland could make an ideal location for (computer) server farms. Relatively inexpensive electricity, combined with the cold Icelandic climate, makes for an attractive server farm location. Fiber optic cables may be an issue (I really don’t know what the current situation is regarding undersea data cables) – but, if the cables are already in place – you may be in an ideal position.
Now, can I recommend some relatively lax copyright laws, as well? :)
Anyway, it’s just a suggestion for dealing with the current economic disaster.
Not surprising considering the global economic epedemic this year.
The decline in credit card spending is a worldwide phenomenon. While a small decline in debit card shown it is increasing in popularity.
For country like Australia, theere is an increase of over 17% in the debit card sector.
Iceland is 94th (out of 143 countries) in the New Economics Foundation’s Happy Planet Index. It’s position should rise in future as consumption, and so carbon footprint, reduce.
http://www.greennewdealgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/HPI-EMB.pdf
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I am shocked! The unemployed people of Iceland are not still spending on credit? Maybe because the credit and credit lines are maxed out already. Things will be getting tougher still.