Norway: Selected Issues; IMF Country Report 15/250; July 30, 2015
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IMF Country Report No. 15/250 NORWAY SELECTED ISSUES September 2015 This Selected Issues paper on Norway was prepared by a staff team of the International Monetary Fund as background documentation for the periodic consultation with the member country. It is based on the information available at the time it was completed on July 30, 2015. Copies of this report are available to the public from International Monetary Fund Publication Services PO Box 92780 Washington, D.C. 20090 Telephone: (202) 623-7430 Fax: (202) 623-7201 E-mail: [email protected] Web: http://www.imf.org Price: $18.00 per printed copy International Monetary Fund Washington, D.C. © 2015 International Monetary Fund NORWAY SELECTED ISSUES July 30, 2015 Approved By Prepared By Tom Dorsey, Giang Ho, and Kazuko Shirono. Philip Gerson N CONTENTS NORWAY’S ECONOMY WITH A MATURING OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY _______________ 3 A. The Direct Contribution of Oil and Gas to the Norwegian Economy ____________________ 3 B. The Fiscal Contribution of Oil and Gas to the Mainland Economy: The Fiscal Rule and the Sovereign Wealth Fund ________________________________________________________________ 4 C. Real Sector Links Between the Offshore and Mainland Economies _____________________ 7 D. Policies for Norway’s Future __________________________________________________________ 12 BOXES 1. Measuring Oil and Gas Sector Demand in Mainland Economy __________________________ 8 2. Investment and Production in Norwegian Fields ______________________________________ 10 3. What Determines Oil Investment and Output? ________________________________________ 11 FIGURE 1. Oil and Gas Related Incomes, 2014 ______________________________________________________ 9 REFERENCES ____________________________________________________________________________ 14 THE HOUSING BOOM AND HOUSEHOLD DEBT IN NORWAY _______________________ 15 A. House Prices and Household Debt ____________________________________________________ 15 B. Institutional Factors Behind the Housing Boom and Household Indebtedness _______ 17 C. Household Vulnerability _______________________________________________________________ 20 D. Macroeconomic Impact of a House Price Correction _________________________________ 22 E. Conclusion _____________________________________________________________________________ 24 NORWAY BOX 1. Sensitivity Analysis _____________________________________________________________________________ 21 FIGURE 1. House Prices and Household Balance Sheets __________________________________________________ 16 REFERENCES _____________________________________________________________________________________ 26 THE NORWEGIAN LABOR MARKET AND MIGRATION _______________________________________ 27 A. Labor Market Institutions in Norway __________________________________________________________ 27 B. Perspectives on Immigration in Norway _______________________________________________________ 32 C. Conclusion_____________________________________________________________________________________ 38 FIGURES 1. Labor Market Institutions ______________________________________________________________________ 28 2. Labor Market Outcomes _______________________________________________________________________ 29 3. Disability Benefit and Sickness Leaves _________________________________________________________ 31 4. Characteristics of Immigration to Norway _____________________________________________________ 33 TABLES 1. Drivers of Net Migration Flows to Nordic Countries ___________________________________________ 34 2. Explaining Foreign-Native Unemployment Gaps ______________________________________________ 37 REFERENCES _____________________________________________________________________________________ 40 EXCHANGE RATE PASS-THROUGH AND INFLATION DYNAMICS IN NORWAY _____________ 41 A. Exchange Rate Pass-Through __________________________________________________________________ 41 B. A Model for Forecasting Inflation _____________________________________________________________ 44 FIGURES 1. Estimated Price Responses to An Exchange Rate Shock _______________________________________ 43 2. Forecast Evaluation ____________________________________________________________________________ 46 TABLE 1. A Phillips Curve Model of Inflation ____________________________________________________________ 45 REFERENCES _____________________________________________________________________________________ 47 2 INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND NORWAY NORWAY’S ECONOMY WITH A MATURING OIL AND 1 GAS INDUSTRY Norway’s half century of good fortune from its oil and gas wealth may have peaked. Oil and gas production will continue for many decades on current projections, but output and investment have flattened out, and the spillovers from the offshore oil and gas production to the mainland economy may have turned from positive to negative. Thus far, economic policy has needed to focus on managing the windfall, and Norway’s institutions have been a model for other countries. Going forward, the challenges will become more complex. The problems of managing “Dutch disease” are not gone, but they will abate, particularly if the recent drop in oil prices is sustained. However, they will be replaced by the difficulties of managing a transition away from what has been an increasingly oil- and gas-dependent mainland economy. A. The Direct Contribution of Oil and Gas to the Norwegian Economy 1. The oil and gas industry has provided only modest direct employment in Norway. Employment in oil and gas extraction has only recently risen above 1 percent of total employment, although the high pay levels in the industry have pushed its share of total wages above 1 percent for some time. 2. The balance of payments impact has been much larger than the employment effect. Oil and gas as a share of exports of goods has risen from an average of 45 percent in 1981–90 to 63 percent in 1995–2014 and from 31 to 48 percent as a share of exports of goods and services. As a share of total Norwegian GDP (mainland and Oil and Gas Exports offshore), oil and gas exports have risen from a (Percent) 70 30 trough of 8 percent in 1988 to a peak of 24 percent 60 in 2008. With the decline in oil prices in the latter 25 50 part of 2014, this had fallen to 17 percent in 2014 20 40 and will likely be as low or lower in 2015. The effect 15 30 on the international investment position is more 10 speculative prior to the first transfer to the sovereign 20 Percent of goods exports 10 5 wealth fund (the Government Pension Fund Global, Percent of GDP (right) 0 0 GPFG) in 1996, but the balance in that Fund had risen 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011 to more than 250 percent of mainland GDP by end- Sources: Statistics Norway and Fund staff calculations. 2014. 3. Government income from oil and gas has also been much larger than the employment impact. Revenue started off much lower than production and exports because of the tax regime, which generates significant revenue only after investment and other costs have been recovered. 1 Prepared by Tom Dorsey and Giang Ho. INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND 3 NORWAY Also, the revenue streams are multiple and complex. Government revenue from oil and gas generated less than 7 percent of total revenue and less than 4 percent of GDP on average from 1971 to 1995. Petroleum-related revenue was not treated differently from other revenue sources. By the late 1990s, the government began to receive much more substantial revenues from oil and gas. This roughly coincided with the creation of the GPFG and the fiscal rule. By 2000, petroleum-related revenue had risen above 10 percent of GDP and 25 percent of total revenue and has remained above those levels since. 4. The fiscal rule has provided considerable insulation against “Dutch disease.” The segregation of the proceeds of oil and gas (including ownership income from the government’s two-thirds stake in the Norwegian oil company Statoil), has largely avoided Dutch disease through the exchange rate appreciation or a crowding out of the private sector by government domination of the real economy. However, the insulation against Dutch disease has not been complete. This has been undercut both by the large size and steady growth of the GPFG and by the increasing share of the mainland economy devoted to providing goods and services to the mainland economy. These two channels are considered in turn in the next two sections. 5. However, production has peaked and begun what is projected to be a gradual, Oil and Gas Production, 1970-2019 (Barrels of oil equivalent) multi-decade decline. Roughly half of all of the 300 Oil oil and gas likely to be produced on the 250 Condensate Norwegian continental shelf has already been NGL 200 Gas extracted. As a result, the mainland economy 150 needs to diversify away from oil and gas supply 100 and service in the medium- and long-term. However, not all of the challenges from having 50 too much income will persist even as the decline 0 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 of oil and gas and the attendant investment Sources: Norwegian Petroleum Directorate: "The Shelf in 2014" and Fund staff demand creates a drag on the economy in other calculations. ways. B. The Fiscal Contribution of Oil and Gas to the Mainland Economy: The Fiscal Rule and the Sovereign Wealth Fund The Fiscal Rule 6. The fiscal rule very effectively insulates Norway’s budget from oil price fluctuations except in the long term. There are various official characterizations of the fiscal rule in English, but one recent, concise