diff --git a/src/emu/screen.cpp b/src/emu/screen.cpp
index c14c2ab1aac..52d373fbeb8 100644
--- a/src/emu/screen.cpp
+++ b/src/emu/screen.cpp
@@ -15,8 +15,11 @@
 
 #include <nanosvg/src/nanosvg.h>
 #include <nanosvg/src/nanosvgrast.h>
+
+#include <clocale>
 #include <set>
 
+
 //**************************************************************************
 //  DEBUGGING
 //**************************************************************************
@@ -91,10 +94,17 @@ private:
 
 screen_device::svg_renderer::svg_renderer(memory_region *region)
 {
+	// nanosvg makes assumptions about the global locale
 	char *s = new char[region->bytes()+1];
 	memcpy(s, region->base(), region->bytes());
 	s[region->bytes()] = 0;
+	const char *const lcctype(std::setlocale(LC_CTYPE, nullptr));
+	const char *const lcnumeric(std::setlocale(LC_NUMERIC, nullptr));
+	std::setlocale(LC_CTYPE, "C");
+	std::setlocale(LC_NUMERIC, "C");
 	m_image = nsvgParse(s, "px", 72);
+	std::setlocale(LC_CTYPE, lcctype);
+	std::setlocale(LC_NUMERIC, lcnumeric);
 	delete[] s;
 	m_rasterizer = nsvgCreateRasterizer();