Prices have been rising in Norway, especially for food, just as the state negotiates with farmers demanding even higher prices and state support for their products. All told, Norway’s consumer price index was up 3.2 percent from the same time last year.
Food prices alone rose 3.9 percent, with meat and products containing sugar leading the charge, according to state statistics bureau SSB. The CPI was also fueled by higher prices for airline tickets and electricity, which was 12.3 percent more expensive but mostly because of higher state taxes on nettleie, the actual power lines that distribute electricity.
At least one economist, though, doesn’t think prices will keep rising. Kari Due-Andresen, chief economist at Handelsbanken, thinks they’ll settle down again and notes that much of the food price hike was tied to imported items. She noted that prices of imported goods rose by 4 percent, because of the weaker Norwegian currency, but told newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) that “we think that import prices will begin to ease again from summer and onwards, and come down from a relatively high level. The Norwegian krone, meanwhile, has strengthened from levels earlier this year.
newsinenglish.no staff