Farmers settle for a 10.5% raise

The two major lobbying groups representing Norwegian farmers have agreed to accept a new state-subsidized compensation package that’s expected to yield average pay hikes for farmers of 10.5 percent through direct subsidy and protectionism. The farmers had demanded more than twice that, so said they were only somewhat satisfied. The raise amounts to around NOK [...]

Farmers try to win more support

UPDATED: Norwegian farmers’ organizations said they were “disappointed and surprised” when the left-center government coalition, which includes the country’s most farmer-friendly party, only offered them half of the taxpayer support they’d demanded. They still stand to get average pay raises of around 8.5 percent, though, and decided over the weekend to enter into negotiations with [...]

Heads roll as grocery store drama goes on

The bosses for both the Rimi and ICA Supermarked chains have been fired after their local parent ICA Norge was hit with more heavy losses. The grocery stores owned by the ICA group of Sweden face an uncertain future, but ICA’s leaders aren’t giving up on their Norwegian operations yet. ICA is still doing well [...]

Farmers demand huge pay hike

Norway’s powerful farmers’ organizations handed over a demand on Friday for nearly NOK 2 billion in increased income this year, mostly in the form of higher prices for meat and more direct support in the state budget. The demand amounts to around NOK 47,000 (USD 8,000) per farmer, much higher than annual pay raises for [...]

Housing prices may finally be settling down

The high price of housing in Norway may have peaked, at least for now. Real estate brokers report fewer prospective buyers at open house showings, and sales figures for March were mostly flat after months and years of strong increases. Average prices for single family homes were up just 0.3 percent, reported the real estate [...]

High costs won’t halt good times

The average hourly wage costs of an industrial worker in Norway are now more than eight times that of a worker in Poland, according to a recent government report, and that’s added to fears that the country’s economic good times will soon stop rolling. Analysts at state statistics bureau SSB, however, say they’re only “a [...]

More stores may open on Sundays

Norway’s Labour Party is clearing the way for a re-evaluation of the country’s laws restricting opening times for retail stores. Since Labour leads the government coalition that still has a majority in Parliament, where some opposition parties already support retail liberalization, residents of Norway may soon be able to shop on Sundays in more and [...]

New grocery deal hikes price fears

Consumer advocates are sounding the alarms over a deal announced Monday between the long-troubled ICA grocery store chain in Norway and Norway’s most powerful grocery retailer, NorgesGruppen. ICA plans to turn over portions of its purchasing and distribution operations to NorgesGruppen, giving the latter even more power to control grocery store products and prices than [...]

Namibia meat wards off shortage

One of Norway’s largest retail grocery store chains, NorgesGruppen, is arranging to import meat from Namibia because Norwegian cattle owners can’t supply enough beef. The Norwegian market faces a shortage estimated at around 17,000 tons this year. The looming domestic beef shortage is tied to last year’s infamous butter shortage, which prompted dairy cattle owners [...]

Norway’s food confirmed as most expensive in Europe

Consumers in Norway have known it for years, but now Norwegian food prices have been confirmed once again as the highest in Europe by both European statistics bureau Eurostat and the central statistics agency in Sweden. They’ve reported that food prices in Norway, affected by high costs and protectionist regulations, lie 64 percent above the [...]

Dominant dairy draws more flak

Several grocery store owners claim Norway’s dairy conglomerate Tine, which regulates and controls the national market, still isn’t managing to produce enough butter to meet demand. Meanwhile, Tine’s role as market regulator remains under fire, food prices have been confirmed as the highest in Europe, and now the dairy has even landed in trouble over [...]

Property prices skyrocket in Oslo

Not only are prices high for houses and apartments in Oslo, the price of vacant residential lots has nearly doubled in the past two years and now are running more than five times the national average, according to state statistics bureau SSB. Lots now cost an average NOK 2,704 per square meter, up from NOK [...]

Norwegians buying more time

New studies show that many Norwegians, armed with a big increase in purchasing power in recent years, are opting to spend their disposable income on more time-saving services and fewer material items. Growth in consumption of goods has stagnated, while Norwegians are buying more services than ever before. Among them, for example, are the dog-walking [...]

Norwegians visit the dentist abroad

More and more Norwegians are rebelling against jaw-droppingly high dental fees in their home country, and hopping on a plane to Budapest or other cities in countries like Poland or even Sweden where the quality of dental care is high and prices relatively low. Some dentists in the Hungarian capital now cater almost exclusively to [...]

Butter supplies remain uncertain

Norway’s embattled dairy monopoly Tine is still struggling to supply enough butter to meet demand, and has asked for more reductions in the country’s protectionist import tariffs to allow more foreign butter into the market. Tine felt a need to request tariff reductions until January 1, making the third time this autumn alone that the [...]

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