Latest news with #StatisticsNorway
Local Norway
19-05-2025
- Business
- Local Norway
How Norway's government plans to lower the price of food
Jonas Gahr Støre, the country's prime minister, said at a press conference announcing the new measures that tougher competition in the food retail market could help contain price growth and improve the variety of goods on offer. 'Rising food prices are something households feel every single day,' he said. 'Stronger competition in the grocery sector could give consumers better variety and lower price growth. That's why the government is introducing new measures to strengthen competition.' According to Statistics Norway (SSB), food and beverage prices have for years outpaced general inflation, something experts blame on the tight control a handful of supermarket giants have over retail and wholesale, together with high import taxes and a challenging geography. READ ALSO: Three key things you need to know about Norway's revised budget Advertisement The government announced four main measures: better price information for consumers , by ensuring that companies have correct unit prices, promotions and special prices increasing access to prime retail locations for competitors , by, among other things, taking action against the anti-competitive use of exclusive leases. increasing transparency in the food value chain by, among other things, forcing the food giants to keep separate accounts for their businesses at each step of the retail chain, making it easier for regulators and consumers to see what margins they are earning. reforming the Good Practices Act , or loven om god handelsskikk , to make it easier to scrutinise agreements between the food giants and their suppliers, including on issues like the use of discounts and private labels. Norway's grocery chains were cautiously positive towards the changes. Coop said it was "positive about measures that strengthen competition in the grocery value chain, so that consumers get the lowest possible prices for food." "We will now carefully consider whether these are proposals that will be positive for our customers. We will talk to the government about this on Friday," Stein Rømmerud, executive vice president of communications at Norgesgruppen, told E24. The proposals were dismissed, however, by the Centre Party leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, who is calling for VAT on food to be cut from 15 percent to 10 percent to lessen the impact of high prices on consumers. "None of these proposals will have any impact on food prices for the foreseeable future," he said. "It's better to cut VAT on food from August 1st. At the press conference, Jonas Gahr Støre said that the finance ministry had rejected the idea of reducing VAT on food because "experience shows that the money from these reductions gets eaten up before it affects what's in people's shopping carts. It is not targeted or worth spending money in that way. It also takes responsibility away from the grocery chains." But Vedum dismissed this as "pure rhetoric", saying that it had been Gahr Støre himself who had blocked the measure when the Centre Party had called for it before the party left the government coalition in February. "It is important to respect that there are different views, but it was the Labour party's leader who said no to lower food VAT," he said. Erik Fagerlid, a retail expert, was also critical of the government's proposals, claiming that all of these measures have been floated without success for more than a decade. Advertisement "The government has already received answers to all the questions it's now asking and not so long ago. This has been investigated from here to eternity," he told the E24 business site. "I have submitted thoughts, consultation responses and reports to seven ministers. [Cecilie] Myrseth is number eight." The measures, if anything, threatened to make food more expensive by forcing the food giants to spend more on lobbying, he claimed. "The money spent on lawyers, consultants and PR advisors over the last 20 years comes from somewhere. All other things being equal, this passes the costs on to you and me as consumers. It has made groceries more expensive."
Local Norway
09-05-2025
- Business
- Local Norway
Fresh inflation figures good news for Norway's interest rate outlook
Annual inflation in Norway between April 2025 and the same month last year was measured at 2.5 percent, figures released by the national data agency Statistics Norway on Friday showed. 'It was especially the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages that contributed to the drop in the growth rate,' section manager Espen Kristiansen said of the figures. Food prices fell two percentage points from March to April this year, but were only 3.1 percent higher than in April last year. This was 5.5 percentage points lower than March's 12-month food inflation figure. The slowdown in food price inflation between March and April was due to a late Easter this year. 'A significant drop in food price inflation was expected from March to April, partly because Easter fell in March last year, while it was in April this year. Easter offers pulled food prices down in April this year, while a similar effect last year occurred the month before,' Kristiansen said. Economists said the figures released on Friday were good news for consumers in Norway. 'Both [core and general inflation] are slightly down from last month, and we are really starting to approach the inflation target. It is slightly lower than Norges Bank expected, and that is good news for the interest rate outlook, Kyrre Knudsen, chief economist at Sparebank 1 Sør-Norge, told the newswire NTB. Meanwhile, Karine Alsvik Nelson, macroeconomist at Handelsbanken, told business and finance news outlet E24 core inflation came in lower than expected. Advertisement 'Core inflation came in lower than expected, which is positive, but Norges Bank will probably still be wait-and-see as they have been keen to claim that price pressures are more on the decline too soon,' she said. 'The driving forces are still strong with high wage growth and a weaker krone, so a cut in June is still unlikely in our view, even though the numbers today were lower than both we and Norges Bank had expected,' she added. On Thursday, Norway's central bank maintained its policy rate at 4.5 percent as inflation remains above its two percent target. "Trade barriers have become more extensive, and there is uncertainty about future trade policies," Norges Bank deputy governor Pål Longva said. "This may pull the interest rate outlook in different directions," Longva added. READ MORE: Sweden and Norway leave interest rates unchanged amid global turmoil Economists generally expect the first interest rate cut to arrive in the autumn, and the central bank said on Thursday it expected rate cuts to be implemented during the autumn.
Local Norway
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Local Norway
Why the number of Syrians getting Norwegian citizenship more than halved
The number of Syrian citizens awarded Norwegian citizenship saw a startling drop last year from 9,033 to just 3,748, accounting for a large proportion of the fall of 9,880 in the number of citizenships awarded. This was both a dramatic fall from the peak year, 2023, and from 2022, when 4,188 Syrians gained citizenship. But it was still well above the number of Syrians given citizenship between 2017 and 2021. Advertisement The Assad regime collapsed on 8 December, 2024, with those still held in the regime's notorious political prisons freed and a new Syrian transitional government appointed in March, prompting 400,000 Syrians to return to the country from neighbouring countries. At least some of the Syrians in Norway are likely to now return to their country of origin, but it is too early for them to show up in the 2024 statistics. Statistics Norway attributes the fall instead to the fact that many of Syrians who came to Norway during the 2015 refugee crisis already received citizenship in 2023. "2023 was a year with particularly high numbers of transitions to Norwegian citizenship among Syrians," the agency points out. "This probably reflects the fact that it was seven years since the refugee influx from Syria and that many had achieved the minimum residence requirement for refugees. The fact that the number is now decreasing may reflect that some of those seeking Norwegian citizenship already had it in 2024." Advertisement According to Statistics Norway the naturalization rate for adult Syrians who had at least six years of residence fell in 2024 to just 25 out of 100, from 55 in 2023 and 61 in 2022. In addition to the fall in applications from the peak year of 2023, the agency said that longer processing times at the UDI could also play a role in the lower number of citizenships awarded. "One should be cautious in interpreting the variations in the number of transitions as reflecting differences in the number of applicants alone," it reported. "The lower number of transitions... among Syrians may also be a result of longer processing times at the UDI [The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration], and that some are waiting for their applications to be processed." As you can see in the charts above, the number of Poles, Swedes, Eritreans and Somalis becoming Norwegian citizens also fell in 2024.
Local Norway
02-05-2025
- Business
- Local Norway
Norway's immigration directorate updates salary thresholds for work permits
The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) requires skilled work permit applicants to have received a job offer with pay and working conditions that are in line with what's considered typical in Norway. Skilled worker permits are available for non-EEA nationals who have a university degree, have completed vocational training of at least three years at upper-secondary school level, or have special qualifications acquired through long professional experience. Prospective employees who will be working in an industry with a collective bargaining agreement must be paid the collective wage rate. Meanwhile, those working in an industry with no collective bargaining agreement must earn at least 469,366 kroner per year pre-tax if they hold a bachelor's degree. In some cases it may be possible to earn a salary less than this if the applicant or employer can document that it is the norm for the industry. For reference, the average annual salary in Norway is 704,700 kroner per year, according to figures from the national data agency Statistics Norway . Those with a master's degree will be subject to a higher wage requirement and will need to earn at least 513,100 kroner per year pre-tax unless they can prove a lower salary than is typical for the role. The updated earnings requirements were effective immediately upon their introduction on April 11th. Advertisement When applying for a skilled work permit, the applicant's vocational training or higher education needs to be relevant to the job they are applying for. They must also have a job offer before applying for a permit, and the role must be a full-time position or 37.5 hours per week. The UDI will also grant work permits to those who have been offered positions equivalent to 80 percent of full-time hours. Some workers must also have their qualifications officially recognised and authorised in Norway. READ ALSO: What foreign workers in Norway should know about regulated professions
Local Norway
11-04-2025
- Business
- Local Norway
EXPLAINED: Three reasons why food prices in Norway are so high
Not only is food in Norway already among the most expensive in Europe, but it's also rising in price rapidly. Food prices have risen by 8.6 percent over the past twelve months, with some foods like chocolate experiencing a particularly sharp rise, according to inflation figures from Statistics Norway. A new report on the grocery industry by the Norwegian Competition Authority, the government agency responsible for promoting competition, has pointed to a number of reasons why food prices in Norway are so high. The report outlined that weak competition in the grocery sector meant that supermarkets could charge more than they otherwise would. According to the report, Norwegians bought around 95 percent of their food from one of the three major chains – meaning Coop, Rema and Norgesgruppen have almost the entire market to themselves. In its report the authority pointed to three obstacles which hindered competition in the grocery market as it made it hard for new chains to establish and offer customers lower prices. Among the obstacles was import protection. Norway has a number of high tariffs in place to protect Norwegian agriculture. The protectionist measures apply mainly to meat and dairy products. For example, the tariff on beef is 344 percent, while the tariff for cows milk is 443 percent. The competition watchdog has previously said the current protectionist measures needed to be reassessed, while public broadcaster NRK recently reported that the removal of tariffs could lead to food being about 20 to 30 percent cheaper . Advertisement Import protection was the biggest barrier to better competition in the grocery sector, the watchdog said in its report. 'We have import protection that is intended to protect Norwegian farmers and Norwegian agriculture. But it also effectively protects Norwegian suppliers and grocery chains,' Beate Berrefjord, director of the Norwegian Competition Authority, said. Furthermore, the process to import foods that aren't subject to tariffs was difficult, according to the watchdog. This makes it difficult to bring cheap food into Norway. It also favours the larger chains that have far more staff available to deal with the red tape. Meanwhile, new entrants to the grocery market are effectively blocked from being able to find suitable premises. The big chains have used negative easements, which set limits on what a property can be used for, in order to block off potential locations for competitors. Despite this practice no longer being allowed, the Norwegian Competition Authority reported that the biggest chains seemed to have found a way around the ban.
