The industry structure of our economy has changed. A growing number of firms, and not only in the engineering industry, have targeted the oil industry. Labour shedding in some sectors has freed up labour for other uses. Chart: High wages in the oil industry  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  Oil companies have had the capacity and the willingness to pay. Tax rules have favoured investment spending and earnings have been solid. Oil company employees have been wage winners here in Norway. A state-of-the-art oil service industry has emerged. New products and technological solutions have been developed. For many firms, the contracts on the Norwegian continental shelf have been a springboard to new export markets. Chart: Growth in oil investment High oil prices and a profitable petroleum production industry have led to record-high oil investment in recent years. The level of investment in 2014 was equivalent to that of all the domestic non-oil industries combined. The positive spillovers to the oil service industry and other firms have been substantial. Employment has remained high and unemployment low, even when the financial crisis hit in 2008. A large share of the business sector and the labour market is now linked to the oil industry. A relatively small number of jobs are directly involved in oil and gas production. But if account is taken of all the suppliers to the petroleum sector, about 1 in 9 jobs in Norway, a total of about 300 000, were linked to the oil industry in 20141.
Likewise, the iTraxx Sovereign Western Europe Index, consisting of 15 sovereign CDS across Europe, rose by approximately 70% in the same period. 2  This is an approximation of the real effective exchange rate, assuming constant weights and inflation differentials. 3  Annualised volatility computed over one calendar month on the basis of daily movements. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  rate on 6 September, EUR/CHF volatility has fallen below 10%, though it remains high from a historical perspective. The introduction of the minimum exchange rate also had an impact on some of the dynamic properties of the Swiss franc. As the red bar on the left side of chart 2 suggests, there was previously a positive correlation between the movements of the Swiss franc and those of risk indicators such as the VIX Index, i.e. investors tend to buy Swiss francs when perceived risk increases. In the same vein, the blue bar on the left of the chart shows that the correlation between the movements of the Swiss franc and those of risky assets, such as the equity shares on the MSCI World Index, has historically been negative. In other words, negative market developments have often been accompanied by a rising Swiss franc. Intriguingly, as the right side of chart 2 shows, the introduction of the minimum exchange rate appears to have had a significant impact on these correlations. The SNB’s implementation of monetary policy: liquidity measures On 3 August, the SNB started to implement liquidity measures against the massively overvalued Swiss franc.