Norway’s retail sales growth sharply slows in August

Retail sales in Norway have increased 0.1% in August over July, the latest data by Statistics Norway showed.

The latter followed a 1.2% rise in July and fell short of market consensus of a 0.6% surge.

Retail sales growth slowed markedly at non-specialized stores, 0.8% month-over-month, following a 1.7% rise in July.

Sales of automotive fuel stalled in August, after a 1.5% increase in the prior month.

On the other hand, sales of other goods at specialized stores rebounded 1.7% in August.

Conversely, retail sales went down for:

– food, beverages and tobacco (-1% compared to a 1.2% rise in July);
– cultural and recreational goods (-3.4% compared to a 7.5% increase in July);
– information and communication equipment (-4.1% compared to -4.5% in July).

Excluding motor vehicles, motorcycles and automotive fuel, retail sales in Norway remained without change in August, after rising 0.5% in July.

The USD/NOK currency pair settled 0.51% lower at 10.4734 on Friday. For the week, the exotic currency pair inched up 0.06%.