Economic trends

Forecasting is an important planning tool (see also fact box). Households' choices will often be based on expectations of developments in macroeconomic conditions such as interest rates, wages, house prices and unemployment. For example, a household that is considering buying a house would find it relevant to calculate the burden that interest charges is likely to represent.

Companies will not only be interested in general macroeconomic developments, but in price and cost trends and demand. The picture that companies have of the market situation dictates whether they recruit more workers or invest in new production equipment.

When negotiating wages, employers and trade unions are interested in inflation rates and unemployment levels.

The ongoing monitoring of economic cycles is necessary for ensuring that other parts of Statistics Norway's social mission are also carried out. The Government uses KVARTS in its work on the national budget, and the Ministry of Finance receives an updated model and forecasts after each economic trends publication. The Ministry of Finance then compiles its own forecasts for the Norwegian economy.

In the 1990s, Statistics Norway signed an agreement with the Storting's Finance Committee and the Ministry of Finance to carry out macroeconomic calculations for an alternative national budget for the parties in parliament, see for example Statistics Norway's calculations of the Frp party's national budget proposal for 2013 (SSBs beregninger av Frps forslag til statsbudsjett for 2013 - in Norwegian only).

Statistics Norway also assists the Norwegian Technical Calculation Committee for Wage Settlements in producing estimates of the annual growth in the consumer price index. In addition, Statistics Norway takes on assignments from ministries and prepares Official Norwegian Reports (Norges offentlige utredninger, or NOUs) with analyses of the Norwegian economy. All these elements of the social mission require Statistics Norway to stay abreast of the trajectory of the Norwegian economy.