Norway's retail trade fell 1.3 year-on-year in December 2018, following a downwardly revised 0.4 percent gain in the previous month, as sales of information and communication equipment dropped the most (-12.7 percent vs -5.5 percent), followed by other household equipment (-3.2 percent vs 0.9 percent), automotive fuel (-2.4 percent vs -3.3 percent), other goods (-2.3 percent vs -3.5 percent) and cultural and recreation goods (-2.2 percent vs -0.7 percent). In addition, trade growth not in stores, stalls and markets slowed sharply to 0.1 percent in December from 20.9 percent in November, while sales of food, beverages and tobacco rose faster (1.4 percent vs 1.1 percent). On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, retail trade dropped by 1.8 percent in December, compared to market consensus of a 0.4 percent fall. Retail Sales YoY in Norway averaged 2.02 percent from 2001 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 9 percent in April of 2007 and a record low of -4.40 percent in April of 2016.
Retail Sales YoY in Norway is expected to be 2.20 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Retail Sales YoY in Norway to stand at 1.90 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Norway Retail Sales YoY is projected to trend around 2.00 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.