More expensive food and electricity

Food / cheese.Food / cheese.Photo: pixabay.com

The consumer price index has risen by 3.2 percent over the last twelve months. More expensive food is the main cause.

The twelve-month growth has slowed by 0.1 percentage points from March, according to recent figures from Statistics Norway. The main reason for this is a change in airline fares.
Food prices rose by 3.9 percent from April last year to April this year. Especially meat and sugar products have become more expensive. The price of electricity, including grid, also  contributed to the rising inflation figures . The electricity was 12.3 percent more expensive in April than in April last year, which is the highest twelve-month growth since November 2013.
The figure which economists attach the greatest importance to, however, is the so-called core inflation, in SSB markup language known as CPI-ATE. This index rose by 3.3 percent from April last year to April this year.
The changes are in line with analysts’ expectations. According to analyst Kjetil Olsen in Nordea Markets, larger deviations are probably “needed” to affect  the monetary policy in Norges Bank, which will hold an interest rate meeting on Thursday this week.

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today