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10-15-2008, 03:06 PM | #1 |
Avalon Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: click sing along with me =) ---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn0bgdsCxXE
Posts: 215
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Icelandic Shoppers Splurge as Currency Woes Reduce Food Imports
Icelandic Shoppers Splurge as Currency Woes Reduce Food Imports
Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- After a four-year spending spree, Icelanders are flooding the supermarkets one last time, stocking up on food as the collapse of the banking system threatens to cut the island off from imports. ``We have had crazy days for a week now,'' said Johannes Smari Oluffsson, manager of the Bonus discount grocery store in Reykjavik's main shopping center. ``Sales have doubled.'' Bonus, a nationwide chain, has stock at its warehouse for about two weeks. After that, the shelves will start emptying unless it can get access to foreign currency, the 22-year-old manager said, standing in a walk-in fridge filled with meat products, among the few goods on sale produced locally. Iceland's foreign currency market has seized up after the three largest banks collapsed and the government abandoned an attempt to peg the exchange rate. Many banks won't trade the krona and suppliers from abroad are demanding payment in advance. The government has asked banks to prioritize foreign currency transactions for essentials such as food, drugs and oil. The crisis is already hitting clothing retailers. A short walk from Bonus in the capital's Kringlan shopping center, Ragnhildur Anna Jonsdottir, 38, owner of the Next Plc clothing store, said she can't get any foreign currency to pay for incoming shipments and, even if she could, the exchange rate would be prohibitively high. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...c50&refer=home Financial crisis: Gordon Brown to sue Iceland over near £1bn of frozen bank deposits The Prime Minister is furious that 300,000 bank customers are blocked from accessing deposits in online bank Icesave. There are also concerns that councils and police authorities might not be able to retrieve nearly £900m of taxpayers' money which is stranded in Icelandic bank accounts. Mr Brown told a press conference: "We are taking legal action against the Icelandic authorities. We are showing by our action that we stand by people who save." Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer, added: "The Icelandic government, believe it or not, have told me yesterday they have no intention of honouring their obligations here." The Treasury said in a statement that it had frozen the assets of Landsbanki, Iceland's second-largest bank, until the future of the business and UK creditors "becomes clearer". http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/f...-deposits.html October 14, 2008 - Russia helps Iceland to overcome the crisis - Iceland has asked Russia for a loan of around €4 billion to stabilise the country's financial system The talks on the loan are due to start in Moscow on Tuesday http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P0VAved0x8 Last edited by MAP; 10-15-2008 at 03:12 PM. |
10-15-2008, 03:19 PM | #2 |
Avalon Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 84
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Re: Icelandic Shoppers Splurge as Currency Woes Reduce Food Imports
Id like to add a piece of info I just got from a friend who is in Cannes in France, she is there for an international congress and has met Islanders there and they mention that they are restricted to a 60 Euro a day withdrawl from thier bank accounts via ATM's. This from several different banks that several Islanders have. They are kinda freaking out as they are on a buisness trip and you can't do much with 60 euros in Cannes...
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