Norway Manufacturing Growth Slowed in September as Orders Eased
October 03, 2011, 3:22 AM EDTBy Josiane Kremer
Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Norway’s manufacturing growth slowed in September as orders eased, signaling weaker economic growth in the debt-burdened euro area is hurting an expansion in the world’s seventh-largest oil exporter.
A seasonally-adjusted index based on responses from purchasing managers fell to 54.8 from a revised 55.4 in August, Oslo-based Fokus Bank said today in a statement. It was forecast to be 54, according to a Bloomberg survey of eight economists. A reading above 50 signals growth.
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said last month that Norway was not immune to a weaker global economic outlook, adding that unemployment may rise going forward. Norway, the second-richest nation per capita, has largely been shielded from the global financial crisis as oil revenue generated wide budget surpluses and kept unemployment below 3 percent.
The sub-index measuring orders fell to 57.2 from 59.7 in August and the index for the inventory of purchased goods dropped to 50.1 from 54. The employment index increased to 52.7 from 50.7 and the production measure rose to 56.8 from 56.2.
Norway’s PMI Index was started by Fokus Bank in 2004 in cooperation with the Association for Purchasing and Logistics. Fokus is owned by Danske Bank A/S, Denmark’s biggest lender.
--Editors: Jonas Bergman, Tasneem Brogger
To contact the reporter on this story: Josiane Kremer in Oslo at jkremer4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tasneem Brogger at tbrogger@bloomberg.net
