Finance Minister Siv Jensen of Fremskrittsparti (Frp) announced far less use of oil money. On Thursday next week, she will present the draft state budget for 2018.
‘The decline period is over. This means that we’ll press a little less hard on the accelerator’, said Jensen to Aftenposten newspaper.
She didn’t want to say anything about who will be affected by minor transfers within the state budget before it is presented next week.
The minister said the that the past four years had been an exception, and the Norwegian economy has recovered.
‘Unemployment is falling, and employment is increasing. We have succeeded in demanding political times with both the oil price slump and refugee crisis,’ said Jensen.
In the next period, the oil price increase will drop to NOK 3 billion annually, while there will be increasing costs of fire fighting, defence and other services. NHO chief economist, Øystein Dørum, believes the government has four choices. These include increasing taxation, working more, working smarter, or cutting into welfare benefits.
Jensen said she is most concerned with how the government manages the taxpayers’ money.
‘We owe them to use it sensibly. The Nye Veier (New Road) Company is an example of a reform that will allow us to get more return on taxpayers’ money. We will build faster, and more cheaply than before,’ said Jensen.
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today