OSLO: Norway’s consumer price inflation was unchanged in December, while core measure eased, figures from Statistics Norway showed.
The consumer price index rose 3.5 percent year-on-year, same as in November. Economists had expected an acceleration to 3.9 percent.
On a month-on-month basis, the CPI declined 0.5 percent in December, while economists had predicted only a 0.1 percent fall. The agency attributed the decrease to a sustained drop in food prices, which decline for the fifth month in a row, down 3.1 percent. Electricity prices fell 5.3 percent monthly, due to milder temperatures and higher production in December, combined with a scarcer resource situation in November.
The core CPI that excludes tax changes and energy products rose 2.5 percent year-on-year after a 2.6 percent increase in the previous month. That was in contrast to economists’ expectation for an acceleration to 2.8 percent.
Compared to the previous month, the core CPI decreased 0.4 percent. In 2016, the annual growth in the CPI was 3.6 percent and core inflation was 3.0 percent.
