The credit indicator C3, October 2007

The reduced growth in external loan debt may be related to the fact that it has become increasingly difficult to borrow abroad as a consequence of the problems in the international financial markets. During the period March-September 2007 the twelve-month growth was in part considerably higher for external debt than for domestic debt (C2). At end-October this situation had reversed.

The general public gross external loan debt, which mainly relates to non-financial enterprises, amounted to NOK 585 billion at end-October. About 42 per cent of the external loan debt came from offshore industries. For this part of the foreign debt, annual growth fell from 17.4 per cent to 10.6 per cent, while twelve-month growth in the foreign debt of mainland Norway fell from 13.5 per cent to 8.7 per cent through October.

Reduced growth also in total gross debt

Twelve-month growth in total gross debt (C3) fell for the fifth consecutive month, down from 14.5 per cent to 13.2 per cent through October. Though still high, this is the lowest C3-growth recorded since July 2006. Total gross debt (C3) amounted to NOK 3 471 billion at end-October, whereby NOK 3 160 billion (91 per cent) came from mainland Norway.

Continued high growth in domestic gross debt

The credit indicator C2 amounted to NOK 2 886 billion at end-October. Twelve-month growth was 14.0 per cent, down from 14.3 per cent to end-September. The annual growth in the general public domestic gross debt is still high, due to the very high growth in non-financial enterprise debt (19.1 per cent) and considerably sharp growth in household debt (11.6 per cent). See also the C2 statistics , which shows that the growth in the general public domestic gross debt increased again in November.