“Why It’s a Good Time for Foreigners to Shop in Norway: Record Strong Dollar and Weak Krone”

Record strong dollar and record weak krone. For perhaps the first time, it is nice to come to Norway with foreign currency.

– On the boat we get the same food every day, so we will try to eat a little more variety while we are here.

That’s what the American navy guests Tyler and Frank say outside the souvenir shop Alle Tiders Shop on Stortorget. They do not want to give their last name.

The sailors arrived on the giant aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford on Wednesday.

They have barely been in Norway for a day, but have already visited several bars, restaurants and clothing stores. Dollars worth around NOK 11 burn in the ship’s bags.

Shops accept dollars

They agree that the price level in Norway “isn’t that bad”. Limited storage space on the ship means that they are not allowed to do any major shopping. They still believe that the American soldiers will leave a lot of money in Oslo in the coming days.

The dollar the American soldiers carry with them is rarely strong. The Norwegian krone is correspondingly weak. Several outlets have said they will accept dollars as payment as long as the Americans are in town.

The table shows how much cheaper or more expensive it has become for a foreigner to shop in a store in Norway due to exchange rates. Or put another way: how much cheaper or more expensive it has become for a foreigner to buy Norwegian kroner.

The figures have been made for a selection of countries found in Norges Bank’s daily overview. It shows foreigners’ percentage price change for purchases of Norwegian kroner, calculated from an average for 2022 to 24 May this year.

Lower inflation than in many countries

There has been high Norwegian price growth during this period. But there is consistently even higher local price growth in other countries.

This means that the goods in a Norwegian store may have become even cheaper during the period compared to the store price in other countries.

The figures show that Norway has become a cheaper country for people from almost all of the selected countries. For an American, it has become 12 percent cheaper thanks to the strong dollar, while for someone from a euro country it has become almost 15 percent cheaper to shop in Norway because of the currency.

The crown struck by Belarus

People from Mexico, Belarus and Switzerland have, via the exchange rate, received the biggest price reduction by shopping in Norwegian stores.
For Mexicans, it has become as much as 22 per cent cheaper in Norway compared to the average price for last year.

The Norwegian krone has also weakened against the currencies of countries such as Bangladesh and Vietnam, to name a few.

But for visitors from three countries, exchange rates have developed so that it is now more expensive to shop in Norway compared to last year. People from Pakistan, South Africa and Turkey will have to pay more in Norwegian shops than in 2022.

– Pretty much the same at home

While Tyler and Frank try the leather traps, their colleague McGrath comes out of the shop with the following in the bag: a Norwegian-style shot glass, three golf balls with national romantic motifs and a glass-enclosed miniature Viking ship. He agrees with his colleagues that the prices are “quite like at home”.

– I will give the golf balls to my father when I get home, he says.

He believes that the soldiers will use the Land Act to buy things that they do not have access to on board.

However, he himself has relatively modest shopping ambitions.

– I’ll try to buy myself a hoodie or something while I’m here.