Norway's retail sales rebound in Jan, household spending on food, beverages and car purchases drive

Norway's retail sales increased at the start of the year, reversing declines in the previous month, figures from Statistics Norway showed Thursday. Norway's retail sales volume, excluding motor vehicles, rose a seasonally adjusted 1.4 percent month-over-month in January, reversing a 2.4 percent decline in December.

On an annual bass, the volume of retail sales fell a working-day-adjusted 0.8 percent in January, while value grew by 1.8 percent. During the November to January period, total retail sale volume dropped a working-day-adjusted 1.0 percent compared with same period last year.

Household spending on food and beverages and car purchases likely pulled the index up. Household spending on goods rose by 0.4 percent from December to January.  Consumption of electricity and fuels fell 1.4 percent in January and contributed to pushing down household consumption by 0.1 percentage points.

Spike in Norway's retail sales in Jan likely to have little impact on Norges bank's monetary policy decision. Currency and interest rate markets showed little reaction post data release.

"We expect that consumption will pick up somewhat this year, with growth of 1.9 percent, while Norges Bank expects 2.0 percent. Today's figures have probably little impact on the monetary policy decision in two weeks where we expect Norges Bank will keep interest rates unchanged." said DNB Markets in a report.