Norway’s GDP expansion backs rate hike prospects

Bloomberg

Norway’s economy expanded faster than expected at the end of last year, cementing the outlook for a string of interest rate hikes by Norges Bank from next month.
Mainland gross domestic product, which adjusts for the oil-rich nation’s offshore industry, grows 1.4% in fourth quarter from previous three months, the statistics office said. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg and Norges Bank had forecast an expansion of as much as 1.3%.
The data confirms the picture of the relative resilience of Norway’s economy to the latest bout of the pandemic after robust consumer demand helped it to return to pre-pandemic levels ahead of most advanced nations.

With the country scrapping the remaining virus restrictions last week, the pent-up consumption is set to get another boost, Swedbank analysts said earlier this week, citing a “very strong picture” painted by real-time data.
Norges Bank, which began increasing its benchmark rate in September, kept borrowing costs on hold at its interim meeting last month but indicated it was on track to raise them again in March. It cited a continued upswing in the economy and signalled fewer worries about the latest outbreak of the Covid-19 that had forced the country to return to a semi-lockdown in December.