Norway GDP: Weaker than expected – Nordea Markets

Erik Johannes Bruce, analyst at Nordea Markets, notes that the Norway’s February GDP figure was weaker than expected by -0.3% m/m compared to consensus at -0.1% (Reuters).

Key Quotes

“We guess that electricity production, which is very volatile and which Norges Bank ignores, pulled down say 0.3% points. Our forecasts for Q1 after today’s figure are for a quarterly growth at say  0.4% . That is somewhat  on the weak side to Norges Bank’s forecast at 0.6%. Private consumption grew by 0.1% m/m also somewhat on the weak side to Norges Bank.”

“We are not in doubt that growth is still healthy in Norway .The regional network, the best business survey and much less volatile than the actual GDP figures, points to continued solid growth.”

“We therefore do not give much weight to the fact that today’s figure points to somewhat weaker Q1 GDP figures than Norges Bank forecast.”