The credit indicator C3, February 2007

The annual growth in the public’s gross external loan debt increased in February, after a decline three month’s in a row. However, the public’s gross external loan debt continued to grow at a slower pace than domestic gross debt (C2), and tends to dampen the growth in the total gross debt of the public (C3). Total gross debt (C3) amounted to NOK 3 189 billion at end-February, of which NOK 2 885 billion (more than 90 per cent) came from mainland Norway.

Increasing growth in external debt for offshore industries

The public’s gross external loan debt, which mainly relates to non-financial enterprises, amounted to NOK 546 billion at end-February. Twelve-month growth was 12.1 per cent, up from 7.6 per cent to end-January. About 56 per cent of the external loan debt came from mainland Norway. For this part of the foreign debt the annual growth increased from 15.8 per cent to 15.9 per cent, while twelve-month growth in foreign debt of offshore industries went up from -2.0 per cent to 7.7 per cent through February. These growth rates vary from month to month due to shifting amounts of short-time internal dept by oil-companies. In addition, the first-time-published growth rates are often revised due to better information after some time.

High growth in domestic gross debt

The credit indicator C2 amounted to NOK 2 643 billion at end-February. Twelve-month growth was 14.6 per cent, up from 14.5 per cent to end-January. The annual growth in the public’s domestic gross debt is still high, due to the very high growth in non-financial enterprise debt (21.0 per cent) and considerably sharp growth in household debt (12.1 per cent). See also the C2 statistics .