NEWS

Norway’s economic recovery continued in the fourth quarter led by rising consumer spending and investments while a report showed inflation unexpectedly slowed at the start of the year.

Mainland economic growth, which excludes oil and shipping, expanded by 0.6 percent in fourth quarter, down from a revised 0.7 percent in the prior period, Statistics Norway said in a statement on Friday. That matched an average estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 10 economists. Overall, the economy shrank 0.3 percent from the prior three-month period as oil and gas exports declined.

A separate report showed underlying annual inflation slowed to 1.1 percent in January, falling short of the 1.5 percent estimate and holding far below the central bank’s 2.5 percent target. The krone fell 0.7 percent to 9.77 per euro as of 8:11 a.m.

“The cocktail with poor global risk sentiment and a negative inflation surprise is very bad” for the krone, said Kristoffer Kjaer Lomholt, an analyst at Danske Bank. “Our view, is that this move opens up for strategic opportunities in krone as the core print is not as bad as it first seems.”