The credit indicator C2, May 2011

Only at national level

Monthly

No mandatory reporting, but data are posted on Statistics Norway’s website under “Economic Indicators".

Published data is stored in SSB's data base.

C2 is an approximate measure of the magnitude of the gross domestic debt of the public (households etc., non-financial enterprises and general government) in NOK and foreign currency.

The purpose is to contribute to the basis of information for the monetary policy. The statistics provide an overview of the development of credit at an early stage and is an important indicator of economic activity.

Norges Bank introduced the credit indicator statistics in the mid 1980s, and such data are available dating back to December 1985. After Statistics Norway took over most of the work involved in collecting and publishing financial statistics from Norges Bank in 2007, the work with the credit indicator statistics, C2, was also transferred to Statistics Norway.

Monetary authorities, i.e. Norges Bank and the Ministry of Finance. Other important users are the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway, the financial markets and research institutions. These statistics attract a great deal of media attention.

No external users have access to the statistics and analyses before they are published and accessible simultaneously for all users on ssb.no at 8 am. Prior to this, a minimum of three months' advance notice is given in the Statistics Release Calendar. For more information, see Principles for equal treatment of users in releasing statistics and analyses.

The statistics are based on the guidelines in the System of National Accounts (SNA 1993), European System of Accounts (ESA 1995), Manual on Monetary and Financial Statistics (IMF) and Balance of Payments Manual (IMF 1993).

Not relevant

Derived statistics, without direct Council Directives or Council Regulations from the EU.

Sources included in C2 are loans in NOK and foreign currency to the public by banks, state lending institutions, finance companies, life and non-life insurance companies, mortgage companies, pension funds, the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund, Export Credit Norway and Norges Bank. C2 also includes the public's bond loan debt to domestic lenders and the public's certificate debt in the domestic market. The public's debt, in the form of secured and non-secured domestic inter-company loans, is included up to the end of 1999.

The C2 statistics are derived from the accounting statistics of ORBOF (Reporting of banks, mortgage companies, state lending institutions and finance companies accounts to the public authorities), FORT (Reporting of life and non-life insurance companies accounts for the public authorities) and PORT (Reporting of pension funds account to the public authorities), The data for the public's bond and certificate debts are derived from statistics for securities registered in VPS. The Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund and Export Credit Norway also report data for these statistics.

The calculations of revaluations due to exchange rate fluctuations are based on stock data for the public’s gross debt to the credit sources in the C2 statistics, official data for exchange rates and data for the composition of currencies of the bank’s receivables and debts from the quarterly BIS survey.

The C2 statistics, are in principle, based on total censuses.

From 2007, Statistics Norway have had the responsibility for collecting accounting data for banks and financial corporations, while the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway and Statistics Norway are jointly collecting accounting data from insurance companies and pensions funds. In addition, Statistics Norway obtains data from the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund, Export Credit Norway and VPS.

The editing of the financial corporations’ accounting statements are undertaken by Statistics Norway and the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway. The data from the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund and VPS are controlled by Statistics Norway.

The policy is to disseminate changes of the previous month’s data together with the current month’s data. Statistics Norway is fully prepared to edit in a timely manner, with appropriate notification to users and the media, should it be deemed necessary by the magnitude of a past error, or, owing to other exceptional circumstances. Some of the reported data may contain preliminary data that are subsequently corrected.

All growth rate calculations based on holdings that include foreign currency loans are adjusted for exchange rate fluctuations in order to eliminate all changes not related to transactions. The growth rate calculations are also adjusted for statistical breaks that are not attributable to transactions or valuation changes. Examples of this kind of break could be that a financial enterprise moves from one sector to another or an introduction of a new financial source.

Growth based on the three-month moving average is defined as growth in average outstanding credit (seasonally-adjusted figures) in the latest three-month period in relation to the previous three-month period adjusted for exchange rate valuation changes and statistical breaks as an annualised figure. The calculation is centred, i.e. the observation is set at the middle month of the latest three-month period.

The seasonal adjustment of the credit indicator C2 is carried out using the X12 Arima program. Seasonal components are calculated for one year ahead, when publishing data for January. Revisions of the components for previous periods are also carried out when publishing the January figures. Seasonally adjusted volume figures for previous periods and growth rates based on such figures are thus affected. For more information, se About seasonal adjustment.

Normally, the debt data will not be published if there is a risk of identification, i.e. that the figures can be traced back to the reporting unit. Exceptions here are Norges Bank and the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund, who do not object to such identification.

The revision of international standards and major changes in accountancy laws may result in a gap in the time series data. A change of sectors may have the same result, for instance if a financial corporation moves from one institutional sector to another. We try as far as possible to make adjustments for statistical breaks in our calculations of transactions (break corrections).

New institutional sector classification
As from January 2012, the Norwegian institutional sector classification has been revised in line with the international classification. This change implies a break in stock time series between February and March 2012.