Head of the bank, Svein Gjerdrem, does not believe the international financial crisis will result in mass unemployment in the country. He is still concerned about the rapid changes in the Norwegian economy. Only over the last few weeks, a number of Norway’s major companies have announced that they stall investments, cut activities and reduce staff.
A new study from the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise indicates that as many as half of all Norwegian companies now are putting investment projects on halt. The 2200 companies, which have participated in the study, simply say they do not get the credits necessary for the projects, newspaper E24.no reports.
Still, bank leader Gjerdrem believes Norway will be better off than many other countries. -Is seems like we will get a relatively mild downturn. But the turn from the strong upturn to the downturn is rapid, he says to E24.no, adding that other countries are likely to experience a deeper crisis than Norway.
Also the government admits that the global crisis will hurt Norwegian ecnonomy. In a speech at the Norwegian School of Management this week, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said that the population will have to expect increased unemployment, lower spending and lower salary growth in the time ahead.
Also in the neighbouring Nordic countries the financial crisis now is turning into a general economic downturn. In Finland, 39 percent of consumers say they now are reducing their spending, Newsroom Finland reports. The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (Etla) also says that 11 percent of Finnish companies are about dismiss workers.
