Norway growth likely back after some weak months?

Norway retail sales rose in recent months, but it is still early to say that growth is back after some weak months. Retail sales rose by 0.6% mom in November coming in better than consensus expectations.

With 0.6%mom after last month's 0.9% of retail sales climbed after some disappointing readings. Retail sales in Q4 is 0.6% over Q3 level. This indicates that growth in total private consumption will close up at the firm side Norges bank forecast for 0.4%qoq growth.

"Still we would advise against drawing to strong conclusion based on growth the two last months. The trend since the spring is still rather weak. November and December should also been seen in connections due to the timing of Christmas shopping", says Nordea Bank in a research note.

The figure for change in shopping days is tired to be corrected by Statistics Norway, but it is still noise of figures. The reported firm shopping connected to Black Friday could argue for solid November figure and a weaker December one.