Economic Survey 4-2006

The high rate of growth in the mainland economy has been sustained thus far in 2006, at 4 per cent annualized. Employment growth has been unusually strong and unemployment has fallen sharply, nearing the level prevailing at the cyclical peak towards the end of the 1990s. Consumer price inflation (CPI) has varied somewhat through the year owing to pronounced changes in energy prices, and adjusted for tax changes and excluding energy products (CPI-ATE) the rise in prices has been low. By this measure, it appears that inflation will be 0.8 per cent on an annual basis in 2006. As a result of high commodity prices and not least high oil prices, the current account surplus will break all previous records, and Norway's foreign assets will increase substantially.