On three shiny floors of a former fish factory is CCP, a company best known in computer gaming for Eve Online, which has 300,000 participants all over the world - as many inhabitants as Iceland itself. However, restrictions on access to foreign currency for individuals and businesses and on foreign investment into Iceland are making life difficult. "To make new games, we need foreign investors," says Eyjolfur Gudmundsson, formerly an assistant professor at the University of Akureyri, who supervises Eve's virtual economy. "The present currency restrictions are putting us in a straitjacket. We are in talks with the government, but if we can't let capital in, we might be compelled to leave Iceland, even though this would be against our wishes."

At least CCP still generates income. For the auto industry, sales have plummeted 93% compared with the same time last year, according to RUV state broadcasting. Icelanders simply can't afford foreign models. But foreigners can. Haukur Baldvinsson, a car salesman, says that his staff have taken to snooping around the streets for foreign imports, contacting the seller and then flipping the vehicles on to foreigners.