Domestic prices not so bad anymore

Loose thoughts by Bjorn Landfeldt

Leisurepro has been a popular place to shop over the past few years. Normally, prices within Australia have been about twice of the overseas on-line shop prices and there have been endless discussions on on-line forums about the rip off. Back in July, the Australian dollar was worth about 95 US cents and about 5.85 Swedish kronor. Having a look at Leisurepro now and you can buy a cheap and nasty Bear suit for about USD 700 which after the financial turmoil so far equates to about AUD1100. Add $150 for shipping (or 15% sales tax if going there) and the nasty dry suit will cost $1250. It is true that it is hard to find a dry suit in Australia for that price but then again cheap Bare suits are not sold here, at least not in the shops I frequent. Now, all of a sudden, the price for scuba diving went up by 40% and it seems the Aussie dollar might continue to fall even further. Can I afford to continue diving? yes probably but I will have to use the equipment until it falls apart completely.

Why is it the Aussie dollar has fallen so sharply? Look at the Swedish krona for instance. Sweden is a much smaller country than Australia with a population of about 9M people. If anything, the smaller size shuld be a disadvantage when the financial markets crumble, but the Swedish krona has risen by about 30% compared with the Aussie dollar so far over the past week or so. One might start to think it is bad for a country to completely rely on digging stuff out of the dirt and selling to whoever might need it at the time. Perhaps getting serious about qualified products and services... Rudd!!!

Can't wait for inflation to take off.