Norwegian retail sales fall further in September

Norway’s retail sales have been subdued in the past two months; however, the figures are volatile and the central bank has probably not changed its view on consumption growth significantly. In the month of September, the Norwegian retail sales dropped 0.8 percent sequentially after falling 0.6 percent in August. Consensus expectations were for the retail sales to have risen 0.5 percent.

In the spring, retail sales grew robustly; however, have dropped sharply in the past two months. However, retail sales are 1.5 percent above the level at the beginning of the year and September 2016. According to a Nordea Bank research report, much lower inflation and falling jobless rate signifies that real retail sales will trend up in the coming year. However, today’s figure has made that assumption more uncertain.

“Retail sales are volatile and we believe Norges Bank will await more figures for private consumption before they draw strong conclusions. Today’s figure for consumption of good indicates that growth in consumption of goods (½ of private consumption) ended slightly on the positive side q-o-q”, added Nordea Bank.

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