Martin Wolf in China, 2007

Martin Wolf, associate editor of British newspaper the Financial Times, says he thinks there’s nothing wrong with the fact that Icelanders are holding onto the Icelandic króna, the “smallest currency in the world”, and thinks that the króna has served Icelanders well. As of the time of writing, there are 182 krónur to the pound sterling, 158 to the euro and 114 to the US dollar.

Wolf presided over a meeting this evening with VÍB, the asset management arm of Íslandsbanki. He says he doesn’t see an advantage for Iceland in joining the EU, where he believes the country would have no influence and would have to relinquish control of important resources.

Addressing the audience he said, “I have to ask those of you who want this, have you not been following what is currently going on in the Union?”, which was received with a cry of laughter.

He went on to say that people shouldn’t forget that if they adopt another currency then they need to come to terms with the fact that the exchange rate will not always move in their favour, and that [Icelandic] society would have to possess enormous flexibility.

Amongst the others who were in attendance at the meeting were Vilhjálmur Egilsson, the CEO of Samtaka atvinnulífsins, Katrín Ólafsdóttir, a lecturer at the University of Reykjavík and Heiðar Már Guðjónsson, an investor.

Source: Morgunblaðið
Image: Wikipedia

Labels: Banking, Economy, UK