Advertisement

Today in Norway For Members

Today in Norway: A roundup of the latest news on Tuesday

Robin-Ivan Capar
Robin-Ivan Capar - [email protected]
Today in Norway: A roundup of the latest news on Tuesday
The negotiations on Norway's revised state budget are set to start on Tuesday. Pictured is central Oslo. Photo by Gunnar Ridderström on Unsplash

Revised state budget negotiations, more financial optimism among Norwegian households, and other news from Norway on Tuesday.

Advertisement

Revised national budget negotiations

The governing Labour (AP) and Centre (SP) parties and the oppositional Socialist Left Party (SV) will have their first negotiation meeting on the revised national budget on Tuesday.

At 1pm, the three parties will meet at the Norwegian parliament (Storting) to try to agree on the government's proposal for a revised national budget.

The SV is demanding more emission cuts and increased social security and benefits allocations.

"We must increase benefits to ensure that people get better finances in the future. That is how we can limit the growth in poverty," SV's fiscal policy spokesperson, Kari Elisabeth Kaski, told the Norwegian newswire NTB when the budget was presented almost two weeks ago.

She will meet Eigil Knutsen and Geir Pollestad, who are fiscal policy spokespersons for the Labour Party and the Centre Party, respectively.

Spike in financial optimism among Norwegian households

Financial optimism among households in Norway is strengthening, despite prospects for continued high inflation and rising interest rates.

Those with the lowest and highest incomes are the most optimistic.

"It seems that the consumers with the lowest and highest incomes assess the situation most positively, while the middle-income group is somewhat more negative," managing director Kari Olrud Moen of Finans Norge said, commenting on the survey findings for the second quarter of 2023.

The survey on households' expectations in regard to their own finances and the country's finances is carried out once a quarter.

The survey found that households' assessment of their own future finances is increasing from historically low levels to a neutral area.

Advertisement

Norwegian mountaineer climbs Mount Everest for third time

Norwegian climber Kristin Harila has climbed the world's highest mountain for the third time.

"Today marks an important milestone for Kristin and her attempt to break the record as she reached the top of Mount Everest," her team wrote in a press release.

Climber Nimsdai Purja holds the record for the quickest time to climb the worlds tallest mountains. In 2019, he spent 189 days climbing all the world's mountains over 8,000 meters.

So far this year, Harila has climbed five of these. This is the third time she has reached the top of the world's highest mountain.

Advertisement

Norway not close to reaching offshore wind target

According to the Norwegian government's offshore wind target, more than 1,000 offshore wind turbines must be built in the next 15 years.

However, according to Aker Solutions, the production capacity at Norwegian yards is currently 30 a year.

This will result in a total of 450 turbines in 15 years, far short of the government's target of 1,000, the newspaper Klassekampen writes.

The government's goal is that the same amount of power will be produced from offshore wind in 2040 as the total power production of last year.

For their part, Aker Solutions believes that the profitability of the offshore wind project today is low and uncertain and that the authorities must put in place additional measures.

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also