Colleagues came back from Seoul and Tokyo grinning. The ones who did Florida came back quiet. The exchange rate explains only half of that.
The first week back in the office is really just a travel podcast with a spreadsheet open in the background. I stood by the coffee machine in Kista on Monday and listened to one colleague describe eating his way through Seoul for a week on what he called pocket money, while another summarised a Florida holiday almost entirely in terms of receipts. Same three weeks off, same Swedish salary, two completely different moods. So I went home and pulled the actual numbers, because I wanted to know how much of that gap was money and how much was memory.
The numbers.
Start with the simplest possible question. You take a single 100kr note out of the machine at Arlanda. What is it worth when you land?
100kr becomes:
US dollars .......... $10.55
Euros ............... 9.13 EUR
Japanese yen ........ 1,665 JPY
Korean won .......... 14,870 KRW
Mid-market rates from 6 to 8 August: the krona sat at 0.1056 dollars, 10.94 to the euro, 16.65 yen and 148.7 won. One dollar costs just under 9.50 kronor.
The summer slide.
Here is the part that surprised me. The krona was weaker during the holidays than it had been in winter. One krona bought 0.1124 dollars on 11 February, the strongest reading of the year, and 0.1024 on 24 July, the weakest. That is close to a nine percent swing inside five months, and late July is exactly when Swedes were abroad spending. It went the same way in Asia. Against the yen the krona averaged nearly 17 across 2026 and peaked at 17.61, but was down at 16.65 by 8 August. Against the won it traded as high as 164.7 over ninety days and sat near 149 in early August. None of which makes the krona weak overall, since Exchange Rates UK notes it has delivered the strongest gains in the G10 this year. It simply gave a slice of that back over the summer.
The burger test.
The Economist's Big Mac Index exists for exactly this argument. Take its January 2026 local prices and convert them at today's rates, and the picture stops being abstract.
Big Mac / local price / in kronor
Tokyo ............... 480 JPY ..... 29kr
Seoul ............... 5,500 KRW ... 37kr
United States ....... $6.12 ....... 58kr
Euro area ........... 6.08 EUR .... 67kr
Stockholm ........... 67kr ........ 67kr
A Swede in Tokyo buys the same burger for well under half what it costs at home. In Seoul it is a little over half. In Frankfurt it is exactly the same price, which is why nobody notices.
The lunch test.
The burger is a laboratory item. Lunch is what you actually eat. Numbeo's crowdsourced figure for a meal at an inexpensive restaurant, updated 9 August 2026, converts like this.
Casual lunch / Numbeo (EUR) / in kronor
Japan ............... 6.34 EUR .... kr69
South Korea ......... 7.10 EUR .... kr78
Portugal ............ 13.87 EUR ... kr152
Sweden .............. 15.29 EUR ... kr167
Germany ............. 17.34 EUR ... kr190
United States ....... 20.00 EUR ... kr219
Two lunches in Seoul cost less than one in Stockholm. Three in Tokyo cost roughly what two cost here.
The American maths.
Now read that last row again, because it is worse than it looks. The Numbeo number is a menu price, and in the United States a menu price is an opening bid. Add sales tax at the till and a tipping expectation that has crept past twenty percent, and my own arithmetic puts that 219kr lunch closer to 280kr by the time you leave the table. Nothing about the dollar caused that. Just under 9.50 kronor is historically unremarkable, and the all-time high was 11.50 back in September 2022. The gap is a pricing culture, and it never shows up on a rate chart.
Europe is a wash.
At about 10.94 kronor to the euro against a 2026 average of 10.76, and essentially flat over twelve months, continental Europe has no story to tell. Portugal comes in under Sweden, Germany and Italy come in above. Rome costs what you expected Rome to cost, which is why nobody returns from it with a strong opinion about money.
My read.
Book Asia this autumn, and stop pretending the exchange rate is the reason. The krona has been sliding against the won since spring and will probably keep drifting. What you actually buy with a trip to Seoul or Osaka is a low price level and honest pricing, where the number on the menu includes the tax and excludes the tip. Both of those survive a few percent of currency movement. The American gap will not close either, because tipping norms do not fall when the dollar does.
The takeaway.
For anyone already sketching next year, here is the fun version. Take 1,000kr, convert it at today's rates, and spend the lot on Big Macs.
1,000kr buys you:
Tokyo ............... 34 Big Macs
Seoul ............... 27 Big Macs
United States ....... 17 Big Macs
Stockholm ........... 14 Big Macs
Nobody should actually do this. It is still the clearest one-line picture of where a Swedish salary stretches.
Christmas 2026.
Go to Japan, and go this one. The Bank of Japan held at 1 percent on 31 July, with the yen near a 40-year low and 86 percent of economists in a Reuters poll on 23 July expecting a hike to 1.25 percent by the end of December. If they move in December and the yen firms, the school holiday just before it is roughly the last clean stretch of this particular bargain. Winter in Kansai is cold and bright, hotels outside the New Year week are reasonable, and nobody is fighting you for a spot under a cherry tree.
Summer 2027.
Korea, and book it early. Seventy percent of those same economists expect at 1.5 percent or higher by the second quarter of 2027, which would blunt Japan's price advantage right as Swedish schools break up. Korea is not immune either, since the won has been gaining on the krona since spring. But a 78kr lunch in Seoul has a very long way to climb before it turns into an 167kr lunch in Stockholm, and that cushion is the whole reason to go. I plan to travel to Japan during our stay in Korea in the next summer, in fact.
One honest caveat.
Everything in this section is a forecast, and forecasts about currencies are worth roughly what you paid for them. Rates move on things nobody has put in the calendar yet. Book the trip because you want to see the place. Treat the exchange rate as a discount you happened to catch, never as the reason you went.
FAQs:
1. So is the krona strong right now or not?
A: Both. It is one of the best G10 performers of 2026, but it gave back roughly nine percent against the dollar between February and late July.
2. Why is a Big Mac half price in Tokyo when the yen barely moved against the krona?
A: Because Japanese menu prices have stayed restrained for years while Swedish ones have not. The gap is the local price level, not the currency.
3. Is the US lunch figure really 219kr?
A: That is the menu price. Sales tax and a tip on top push it toward 280kr in practice, which is where the real damage happens.
4. Is Korea getting more expensive for Swedes?
A: Gradually. The krona bought close to 165 won at its 2026 peak and under 150 in early August, so the won has been gaining.
5. Should I wait for a better rate before booking?
A: Not for the currency alone. A dovish Riksbank on 20 August would weaken the krona further, so waiting carries as much downside as upside.
Comments