International ratings agency Standard and Poor's reaffirmed on Thursday its top AAA rating on Norway's sovereign debt and said the outlook was stable.
S&P pointed to the Norwegian government's "strong fiscal and external positions, which continue to benefit from significant tax revenues related to the oil and gas sectors."
The agency nonetheless added that a relatively high level of private sector debt represented a ratings weakness.
It also said the government's fiscal flexibility might be constrained "by the burdens of an aging society unless the authorities take further steps to reform the pension, health care and social security systems."
By lunchtime on Friday, talks between the Scandinavian airline SAS and unions representing striking pilots were still stuck on "difficult issues".
“We agree that we disagree,” Roger Klokset, from the Norwegian pilots’ union, said at lunchtime outside the headquarters of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise in Stockholm, where talks are taking place. “We are still working to find a solution, and so long as there is still some point in continuing negotiations, we will do that.”
Mats Ruland, a mediator for the Norwegian government, said that there were “still several difficult issues which need to be solved”.
At 1pm on Friday, the two sides took a short break from the talks for lunch, after starting at 9am. On Thursday, they negotiated for 15 hours, breaking off at 1am on Friday morning.
READ ALSO: What’s the latest on the SAS plane strike?
Marianne Hernæs, SAS’s negotiator on Friday told journalists she was tired after sitting at the negotiating table long into the night.
“We need to find a model where we can meet in the middle and which can ensure that we pull in the income that we are dependent on,” she said.
Klokset said that there was “a good atmosphere” in the talks, and that the unions were sticking together to represent their members.
“I think we’ve been extremely flexible so far. It’s ‘out of this world’,’ said Henrik Thyregod, with the Danish pilots’ union.
“This could have been solved back in December if SAS had not made unreasonable demands on the pilots,” Klokset added.
The strike, which is now in its 12th day, has cost SAS up to 130m kronor a day, with 2,550 flights cancelled by Thursday, affecting 270,000 passengers.
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