The credit indicator C2, April 2007

Non-financial enterprise gross domestic debt was NOK 898 billion at end-April. The twelve-month growth fell slightly to 20.4 per cent, from 21.1 per cent to end-March. The growth rate is still among the highest recorded for non-financial enterprises since the late 1980s. However, the growth in enterprise money supply is even higher (31.7 per cent). The high activity growth in the Norwegian economy affects the strong growth in enterprise gross debt and money supply.

Household debt growth may be flattening out

Household gross domestic debt was NOK 1 609 billion at end-April. The twelve-month growth was 11.9 per cent, slightly higher than in the previous month. Though still high, the growth to April was among the lowest since May 2005. The growth in household gross debt is still considerably higher than the growth in household money supply (6.4 per cent) according to the M2 statistics ( http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/11/01/m2_en/ ).

Statistics for credit sources affected by portfolio shifts and IFRS

About 70 per cent of the general public gross domestic debt of NOK 2698 billion consists of bank loans. The twelve-month growth in bank loans remained stable at 17.2 per cent from March, whereas the twelve-month growth in credit from mortgage companies fell from 12.8 to 12.2 per cent. The growth rates of loans from banks, mortgage companies and finance companies are unstable at present as loan portfolios are transferred between these credit sources. Also, the data are affected by the implementation of the new international financial reporting standards, IFRS, which may lead to more fluctuation in the data in the time ahead.