Norway’s to see no growth in Q1

The Norges Bank is expected to lower rates in March in consistent with the hints from December. It is also likely to cut its rate forecast. The central bank, in its Q1 regional network report has mentioned that the main indicator was 0, indicating a quarterly growth of 0% q/q. Norges Bank forecasts 0.15% q/q growth in Q1. The forward looking indicators stood at 0.11, suggesting growth of 0.06% in the next quarters.

The survey confirms the picture seen in H2 2015 GDP figures. Growth is being dragged slowly by oil related industries, but the rest of the economy is performing fairly well. There are no proper signs of second had impacts from the downturn in oil. Apart from that, growth was weak in business to business services. However, this contains several deliverances to oil.  Actually, growth has expanded slightly in this part in the last quarters.

The survey is somewhat weaker than the forecast of the central bank; however, it is not sufficient to have any considerable impact on its view.