OSLO, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Norway's major employers organization has reduced its estimates for the country's economic growth this year to 1.5 percent from 2.1 percent, financial newspaper DN reported Thursday.
"The worst is behind us and we are experiencing a moderate upswing," said Oystein Dorum, chief economist of the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO).
However, the employers' organization showed much more optimism regarding the situation for the next two years.
"We are adjusting the growth estimates for 2018 and 2019 to 2.3 and 2.4 percent respectively," NHO wrote in its economic report, up from 2.0 percent and 2.2 percent respectively.
The main reasons for these changes are positive expectations for developments in exports and imports, as well as increased investments in the housing and mainland industries, DN reported.
"One of the reasons why the worst is behind us is that the fall in oil investments is not continuing. In the future, we will see more growth in corporate investment and private consumption, and lower growth in public demand and in the construction industry," Dorum said.
He also pointed out that the upswing in the economy was followed by declining unemployment, but "some of the unemployment rate is undesirable".
"A large part of the decline in unemployment is due to people withdrawing from the labor market," he explained.
NHO's forecasts still indicate that the growth will continue to be modest in the time to come, the confederation wrote in its report.
This is due to less expansive fiscal policy, uncertainty about price developments in the housing market, and seemingly slower consumption growth.
