Iceland named the most expensive country in the world to live in

Iceland has overtaken Switzerland to become the most expensive country in the world to live in.

This is reported by the Swedish agency TT, citing data from the Icelandic trade union of university graduates Viska.

In their calculations, experts relied on data from Eurostat and Iceland's central bank Sedlabanki. According to Viska economist Vilhjálmur Hilmársson, prices in the country are about 3% higher than in Switzerland. A significant part of their increase is due to the fact that the island's economy is based on tourism, which leads to rising inflation in the services sector and wages in the country. Another reason is high housing prices, including in the tourism industry.

Hilmársson believes that Iceland "is too dependent on labor-intensive industries, which will continue to create inflationary pressure."

According to Eurostat, the last time prices in Iceland were higher than in Switzerland was in 2018.