Nobel winners to get $110,000 raise as prize money increased

Winners of the prestigious Nobel prizes this year will receive an extra 1 million crowns ($110,000), the head of the foundation which oversees the awards said.

"The decision has been made due to the fact that our costs and capital are in a stable relation in a completely different way than previously," head of the Nobel Foundation Lars Heikensten said.

Dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel left around 31 million crowns - about 1.8 billion crowns in today's money according to the Foundation - to fund the prizes, which have been awarded since 1901.

The prize amount has varied over time, starting at 150,000 crowns and reaching 1 million crowns in 1981, Reuters reported,

The value rose sharply in the 1980s and 1990s, jumping to 9 million crowns in 2000 and 10 million a year later. But the global credit crunch of 2008-9 hit the Foundation's investments and Heikensten, a former central bank chief, was brought in to get its finances in order.

The prize money was cut to 8 million crowns in 2012 only to rise again to 9 million in 2017.