Annual non-financial sector accounts, national accounts, 2012

National income for Norway was NOK 2 574 billion in 2012. This is an increase of 7.9 per cent compared to the year before. GDP was NOK 165 billion higher in 2012 than in 2011 and this explains most of the increase in national income. Primary income from abroad also helped to pull up the national income. When including net transfers and benefits from abroad, disposable income totalled NOK 2 544 billion in 2012.

Savings in Norway are estimated at NOK 744 billion, which is an increase of NOK 110 billion. The savings rate; savings as a share of disposable income, was 29 per cent. This is two percentage points higher than in 2010.

Lower savings ratio of general government

Savings in Norway are mainly through central government. The central government's share of total savings was 58 per cent in 2012, a decline of 6 percentage points from the year before. Savings in central government were NOK 435 billion in 2012, which is NOK 30 billion more than the year before.

In contrast to the central government, the local government sector continues to have negative savings for the fifth consecutive year. Total savings in the public administration were thus just below NOK 428 billion in 2012. The savings in the public sector were 41 per cent, about the same as the previous year.

High household saving

Disposable income of households and non-profit institutions serving households was NOK 1 242 billion in 2012. This is an increase of 4.8 per cent compared with the year before. Households’ main source of income; compensation of employees, increased by 6.8 per cent and was the largest contributor to the growth in disposable income.

After adjusting for inflation, disposable income increased by 3.9 per cent. Over the past three years, real disposable income has increased by over 11 per cent.

Household saving was approximately NOK 109 billion in 2012, which is just short of NOK 22 billion more than in 2011. Savings as a share of disposable income - the savings rate - are estimated at 8.7 per cent. This is one of the highest savings rates observed. An exception is 2005, when the savings rate was strongly influenced by high dividends.

Negative net lending for corporations continues

Preliminary figures for 2012 show that savings in the corporate sector were NOK 208 billion. This is NOK 59 billion higher than the year before. Gross investment less depreciation was higher than savings, and this meant that companies had negative net lending or net borrowing of NOK 7 billion in 2012.

Figures for reinvested earnings revised

Reinvested earnings, both to and from abroad, have been revised upwards in the 2011 figures as a result of new information. The revision totals NOK 22 billion, and the figures for 2011 have been updated in StatBank.