Economic Survey 4-2001

Following two quarters of close to trend growth, output growth in mainland Norway weakened again in the third quarter. According to the quarterly national accounts, mainland GDP (seasonally adjusted and measured from the previous quarter) rose by 0.3 per cent, compared with 0.7 and 0.5 per cent respectively in the previous two quarters. Traditional exports of goods fell by as much as 5.2 per cent, and mainland investment also showed a marked decline of 2.6 per cent. The effect on production growth in the third quarter was curbed by a decline of 3.4 per cent in traditional imports of goods. Even though output growth moved on a downward trend, the growth path has nevertheless been revised up to some extent compared with the previous report. The upward revision primarily relates to mainland investment, which now shows a contraction through the summer half-year while this component previously showed a fall through the first half of the year. Moreover, petroleum investment now shows steadier rowth over the past year than in the previous report, generating a somewhat stronger contribution to growth. Whereas household consumption, etc. showed growth that was lower than growth in mainland GDP through the summer, growth in general government consumption was higher.