Norway’s April retail sales were unchanged from March’s very weak print of 0%. The consensus expectations were for 1%. Retail sales were expected to recover following quite a weak print in March, said Nordea Bank in a research report. This evidently signifies a downwards trend. The April figures are corrected for Easter timing; however, Statistic Norway has issues with this.
However, when looking at unadjusted figures on an annual year growth, it is evident that retail sales are declining because of a solid growth in price, added Nordea Bank. At current prices, retail sales have grown on average in March and April.
Retail sales were possibly on the central bank’s expectations’ weak side and might argue that the downturn of oil’s second hand effects will be tougher than expected. However, services consumption is still growing at a robust rate and it is likely to argue that retail sales weakness is a brief impact of a solid price growth because of a weaker NOK.
Meanwhile, LFS jobless rate for March was unchanged at 4.7%. Employment dropped significantly in March. Also, labor supply declined, leaving unemployment the same. Looking at the trend, it appears that employment and labor supply and consequently unemployment currently moves around sideways. This should be consistent with the central bank’s views, noted Nordea Bank.
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