The board of Efling condemns the Central Bank of Iceland’s extreme increases in interest rates, which far exceed what has been done in the countries with which we compare ourselves. These increases in interest costs hit the households of low-income people, single parents and younger people in the housing market and immigrants the hardest.
The bank’s arguments for these actions do not hold water. It is not the lower-income half of the population that is responsible for demand expansion through excessive consumption, but the higher-income half and the overgrowth of tourism. Those with higher incomes, on the other hand, feel little interest rate increases. Burdens are thus distributed both unfairly and irrationally, and the results depend on it.
Low-income housing costs have skyrocketed and the production of affordable housing has declined, exacerbating the housing crisis.
It is clear that these measures by the Central Bank will make collective bargaining in the coming winter much more difficult than it would otherwise have been.