Contacts as a whole report some increase in output over the past three months. Growth has picked up slightly since summer, but has been somewhat weaker than contacts expected in August. Higher public demand and continued strong competitiveness are contributing to growth. As in August, growth is reported to be strongest in household services, construction and traditional manufacturing. Oil services continue to report a decline in output, while the other sectors have seen growth.

Contacts overall expect growth to pick up over the next six months, with prospects little changed since August. Enterprises expect higher demand from the public sector and the non-oil related private sector.

The share of contacts reporting capacity constraints has risen slightly. Contacts continue to report that labour supply is ample. Contacts report a slight increase in the level of employment, and they expect continued weak growth over the next three months. As a whole, contacts estimate annual wage growth of 2.4 percent for 2016 and 2.5 percent for 2017.   

Information in this survey was provided by 334 regional network contacts. The interviews were mainly conducted in November.