Norway’s February core inflation likely unchanged from January

Norway's core inflation for February is likely to be around 3%, slightly below Norges Bank's forecast. Inflation has been near to the central bank's forecast since December Monetary Policy Report and February inflation should surprise strongly to have certain impact on the March rate path.

"We forecast core inflation unchanged from January at 3.0%. Norges Bank and consensus forecast is 3.1%", says Nordea Bank.

Food inflation is expected to be the reason for different forecasts.  It has been all over the place recently. Food inflation had decelerated to 2.5% in December from close to 4%. It was expected to recover in January; however, it decelerated further to below 2%.  Food inflation is likely to rebound in February, but the indicators point to a moderate recovery.