Norwegian unemployment rate unexpectedly rose to 4.8 percent in July

Norwegian unemployment rate unexpectedly rose in July, Statistics Norway's official data showed on Wednesday. Norway's LFS unemployment rose 0.1 percentage points from May to 4.8 percent in June. Data missed expectations which called for an unchanged reading at 4.7 percent.

Details showed that unemployment is up 0.1 percentage points from March (the previous three month period). Norges Bank projected LFS unemployment for 2016 to 4.6 percent in monetary policy report from June.

Employment rose by 7 000 people from May to June, after an equally large drop from April to May. Employment fell by 5 000 from the previous three months. Unemployment data has been volatile on a monthly basis, but the level in June is slightly lower than the average over the past year.