Norway's registered jobless steady at 3-1/2-year low

Norway's registered unemployment rate was unchanged in December from November at 3.0 percent, at a three-and-a-half-year low, defying economists' expectations for a slight rise.
The stronger-than-expected figures boosted the Norwegian crown slightly, and economists said the data showed the improvement of the labour market accelerated in the latter part of this year.
"The labour market has shown improvement throughout the year, with strength especially in the second half," the Labour Directorate said in a statement on Thursday.
Soaring oil prices and low interest rates have driven an economic boom in Norway, the world's third-biggest oil exporter and Western Europe's biggest natural gas exporter.
Seven economists surveyed by Reuters had on average forecast the registered jobless rate would edge up to 3.1 percent in December from 3.0 percent in November.
The number of seasonally adjusted unemployed, including people in job training programmes, dipped to 85,707 in December from a revised 87,610 in the previous month.
That figure undershot economists' average expectation for a fall to 86,765 from an unrevised 87,629.
"The unemployment figures were surprisingly good, there had been a strong figure in the previous month, and I thought -- like many others -- that it would not be so good for December," said First Securities chief economist Harald Magnus Andreassen.
"We have an economy that is growing faster than normal, above trend growth," Andreassen said.
Some economists said that the central bank, which mainly tracks inflation when it sets interest rates, would take a close look at the December jobless figures, and one said that the market underestimated their importance.
"We are already at unemployment levels that Norges Bank expects on average for 2006," said Erik Bruce, senior economist at Nordea Markets. "Everything points to a fall below the unemployment level (in the central bank's estimate)."
"It is surprising that the market does not put more weight on these figures, in the period ahead registered unemployment can be as important (for the central bank) as consumer price," Bruce said.
While the registered jobless figures have fallen, a separate set of data published by Statistics Norway has shown a rising trend, though that measure of unemployment dipped to 4.6 percent in the three months to end-November from 4.7 percent to the end of October.