80% of Icelanders say the economy is doing well or very well, according to a recent poll. This is a 15 percentage point increase year-over-year. At the same time last year 65% of the population said the economy was doing well. Only 4% said the economy was doing very poorly, a drop of 6 percentage points over 2017.
The poll shows that older people and those with higher incomes are more likely to say the economy is doing well. Optimism and positive assessment of the state of the economy also increases with rising education.
Economy is indeed doing well
The positive outlook on the economy reflects the strong state of the economy. Unemployment remains low, only 2.8% in March, as well as inflation, 2.3% over the past 12 months. Meanwhile the GDP of Iceland grew by a respectable 3.6% in 2017. Growth is projected to remain in the 2.5-3.5% range for the next several years. The biggest problem facing the economy is lack of workers: The economy has added far more jobs than the local population can fill. Companies have responded by hiring workers from abroad.
Read more: High wages fuel immigration: Icelandic economy would grind to a halt without foreign workers
The growth of recent years has also been translated into strong gains in purchasing power and real-incomes for average people. Purchasing power of the lowest wages has increased 40-50% since 2013, the President of the Economics Department at the University of Iceland told the local newspaper Morgunblaðið.
80% of Icelanders say the economy is doing well or very well, according to a recent poll. This is a 15 percentage point increase year-over-year. At the same time last year 65% of the population said the economy was doing well. Only 4% said the economy was doing very poorly, a drop of 6 percentage points over 2017.
The poll shows that older people and those with higher incomes are more likely to say the economy is doing well. Optimism and positive assessment of the state of the economy also increases with rising education.
Economy is indeed doing well
The positive outlook on the economy reflects the strong state of the economy. Unemployment remains low, only 2.8% in March, as well as inflation, 2.3% over the past 12 months. Meanwhile the GDP of Iceland grew by a respectable 3.6% in 2017. Growth is projected to remain in the 2.5-3.5% range for the next several years. The biggest problem facing the economy is lack of workers: The economy has added far more jobs than the local population can fill. Companies have responded by hiring workers from abroad.
Read more: High wages fuel immigration: Icelandic economy would grind to a halt without foreign workers
The growth of recent years has also been translated into strong gains in purchasing power and real-incomes for average people. Purchasing power of the lowest wages has increased 40-50% since 2013, the President of the Economics Department at the University of Iceland told the local newspaper Morgunblaðið.
