Network contacts report that the overall level of output has remained unchanged over the past three months, the same as reported in October. Growth is still reported to be highest in household services and the traditional export industry, while the sharpest decline in output is reported by the oil service sector.

Contacts expect the level of output to remain broadly unchanged over the next six months. Enterprises expect that oil industry demand will continue to fall, but that demand from the public sector will increase further.

Enterprises' capacity utilisation has declined further from low levels. Enterprises report that the supply of labour is ample. Contacts report that employment has fallen somewhat and that they expect employment to edge down further to some extent over the next three months. Network contacts overall estimated annual wage growth of 2.4 percent, in line with the estimate in the previous survey.

Information in this survey was provided by 337 regional network contacts. The interviews were mainly conducted in February.

Report from Norges Bank's regional network 1/2016