Norway retail sales surge for fourth month in May

Retail sales in Norway grew for a fourth straight month in May, the latest data by Statistics Norway showed.

Sales rose 3.2% in May over April, after a revised up 0.2% increase in the prior month.

In May, sales rebounded for cultural/recreation goods (up 6.6% after a 4.6% drop in April), other goods (up 7.1% after a 2.7% drop in April) and at non-specialized stores (up 4.6% after a 0.7% decrease in April).

Meanwhile, sales of food and beverages rose at a faster pace in May, by 3.6% compared to 2.6% in April.

Conversely, sales of other household equipment lost momentum in May (up 0.1% versus 0.5% growth in April).

And, retail sales went down for ICT equipment (-1.7% versus 0.6% rise in April) and for automotive fuels (-0.4% versus 0.9% rise in April).

The Norwegian Krone was last 0.21% weaker on the day against the Euro, with the EUR/NOK currency pair trading at 11.4024.