EuroBillTracker

I don't know if this has already been brought up somewhere here, but in case not, then here it is:

I found this interesting piece of news on the Central Bank of Malta website:

The Governor of the Central Bank of Malta, Mr Michael C Bonello, wrote:... In a similar context, the announcement last week that Iceland is considering joining the euro is most significant. The country’s Prime Minister is reported to have said, “It’s clear [that] it’s not easy to run a small economy and a small currency in a big market”.

This note is only a minor detail in an article about other issues. The complete article can be read here (the quoted text is about one screen from the beginning).

Don't think that such a scenario is likely. Sure, the exchange rate of a small (low volume) currency is always more volatile than that of, say, the euro or the US dollar. But Iceland does AFAIK not plan to join the European Union, so the only option the country has, with regard to the euro, is some kind of currency board system. That would unilaterally "tie" the krona to the euro. Probably not very helpful either ...

According to this Reuters article the governor of the Icelandic central bank "rejected suggestions, floated in the Iceland government, to link to the euro or even adopt the currency eventually, saying these proposals always are made at times of strong currency appreciation or depreciation and are not necessary." We'll see.

Christian

I believe Iceland would benefit from joining the €uro.
I mean, they're not a country like Switzerland, or Norway, with established currencies, to my knowledge.

1 Icelandic Crown is just over €0,01, so...

Majority of Icelanders Wants to Join EU

The majority of participants in a new opinion poll by Fréttabladid daily, 55.1 percent, want Iceland to apply for EU membership while 44.9 percent say they are against joining the union. Support for EU membership has increased by 19 percent since January 2007.

Fréttabladid also asked whether people believed there are more reasons for joining the EU now than one year ago and 54.7 percent said there were, while 38.1 percent said the situation had not changed and 7.3 percent said there were fewer reasons for joining the EU now than in 2007.

Supporters of the conservative Independence Party are keener on joining the EU than in September 2007, up by 12 percent. Among Independents, 40.3 percent want to apply for EU membership while 59.7 percent are against it.

Fréttabladid called 800 eligible voters on February 23 and 74.4 percent answered whether Iceland should apply for EU membership or not and 84.4 percent answered whether there were more reasons to consider EU membership than one year ago.

http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandrev ... _id=301546