Spain adopted the Euro (one Euro= 100 Euro cents) as the countries official currency in 2002. Spain uses the Euro in the following denominations:
1/2/5 cent coins which feature the Santiago de Compostela cathedral, 10/20/50 cent coins which feature the author Cervantes (Don Quijote),1 and 2 Euro coins which bare the image of King Carlos the I, and 5/10/20/50/100/200 and 500 Euro notes which do not depict any Spanish designs because the notes are the same throughout all of Europe. Since the Euro was introduced Spain has experienced a raise in the cost of living expenses because prices rounded up to the nearest Euro. Although Spain is considered one of the cheapest European Countries, many larger cities property prices are still very high in comparison with the earnings. Here are some examples to get a rough idea of some of the living costs in Spain:
Electricity: 35-40 Euro/per month per 2 people
Telephone: 25 Euro/per month plus calls
Eating out: 12 Euro/per person
Movie theater tickets: 6 Euro/per person
I always thought that Spain had a really high cost of living but according to some of the examples it does not look like its that much different than the US. I wonder if salaries have also increased since the Euro raised the cost of living for Spain?
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting that they have a low cost of living, primarily because I was under the impression that Spain, along with a few other EU countries were struggling to get by on the euro. My country is Norway, and they are nto a member of the EU and thus use a different currency than the euro, I wonder what spain would have used if they decided not to join the european union.
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