Norwegian companies see stable outlook, central bank survey shows

OSLO (Reuters) – Activity in the Norwegian economy is levelling off and companies expect business prospects to be stable in the first half of 2023, a central bank business survey showed on Thursday.

The quarterly survey provides key input for the central bank, which in January said it would “most likely” raise its key policy interest rate in March.

“Developments are slightly stronger than contacts expected in the previous survey, but there is considerable variation across sectors,” Norges Bank said in a statement.

“The share of contacts experiencing recruitment difficulties is much lower than in November, and fewer contacts report capacity constraints. At the same time, many contacts still report full capacity utilisation and labour shortages.”

Norges Bank, which since September of 2021 has raised rates eight times to a level of 2.75%, will announce its next monetary policy decision on March 23.

(Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Anna Ringstrom)