Statistics Norway’s business tendency survey indicates continued favourable prospects for Norwegian manufacturing. Activity is expected to increase in service industries and the construction sector in the near term. Capacity utilisation in the Norwegian economy now appears to be close to a normal level. In manufacturing, capacity utilisation is close to its historical average. According to Norges Bank’s regional network, about 40 per cent of companies will have some or considerable difficulty in increasing production. Even though growth in the Norwegian economy has been high for a long period, substantial pressures have not yet emerged in the labour market. The rise in the number of employed in the first half of the year was fairly modest in relation to output growth. This may be due to lagged effects of the sharp fall in sickness absence through 2004. In many companies, the large increase in available person-hours was probably not fully utilised immediately. A considerable share of output growth may be the result of improved utilisation of company workforces. According to the quarterly national accounts, employment rose by 0.5 per cent from the first half of last year to the same period this year. Measured by the  1/7  Labour Force Survey (LFS), the number of employed rose by 12 000 from May to June and by a further 2 000 from June to July. The use of foreign labour has increased in the year that has passed since the enlargement of the EU.
Mugur Isărescu: Unconventional monetary policies and financial stability – implications for banks and financial markets Address by Mr Mugur Isărescu, Governor of the National Bank of Romania, at the joint CIGI (Centre for International Governance Innovation) – Oliver Wyman conference, Rome, 15 December 2015. *  *  *  The address was presented by Governor Mugur Isărescu during the panel session “Unconventional monetary policies and their impact on financial markets”, which also included the following members: • • • • • •  Domenico Lombardi, Director of the Global Economy Program, CIGI Malcolm Knight, Distinguished Fellow, CIGI (former General Manager of the BIS) Lorenzo Bini-Smaghi, Chairman, Société Générale (former Vice-President of the ECB) Lorenzo Codogno – Professor in Practice European Institute, LES Pierpaolo Benigno, Professor of Economics, LUISS University Carlotta de Franceschi, Co-Founder and President, Action Institute  Participants included, among others: • • • • • • •  Robert Ophèle, Deputy Governor, Banque de France Dimitar Bogov, Governor, National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia Korbinian Ibel, Director General, Micro-Prudential Supervision IV, ECB Margarita Delgado, Deputy Director General, SSM, DG1, ECB Matthew Elderfield, Head of Compliance, Lloyds Bank Carlo Corradini, Member of the Supervisory Board, Intesa Sanpaolo Pierre Siklos, Senior Fellow, CIGI  Ladies and Gentlemen, It is an honour for me to address the audience during this conference on unconventional monetary policies.