This Survey is published on the responsibility of the Economic and Development Review Committee (EDRC) of the OECD, which is charged with the examination of the economic situation of member countries.The economic situation and policies of Norway were reviewed by the Committee on 23 January 2014. The draft report was then revised in the light of the discussions and given final approval as the agreed report of the whole Committee on 7 February 2014.The Secretariat’s draft report was prepared for the Committee by Paul O’Brien and Yosuke Jin, with statistical assistance from Josette Rabesona, Valéry Dugain and Hermes Morgavi under the supervision of Patrick Lenain.

Norway’s new government has taken over responsibility for a prosperous, well-managed economy, where people are generally happy – indicators of both material and non-material welfare are at high levels. Intelligent use of wealth from petroleum resources and active use of monetary policy within the flexible inflation-targeting framework have insulated Norway from the worst of the financial crisis-induced recession and supported the recovery. There are challenges in a number of areas, which are taken up in this Survey.

Norway’s economy has continued to prosper with continued growth in average incomes, low inequality, low unemployment and low inflation. Petroleum wealth has contributed to high incomes and supported the non-petroleum (mainland) economy; around 8% of mainland production is estimated to be directed towards supplying the offshore sector. At the same time, the prudent policy of saving almost all of net profits from petroleum as public sector assets has mitigated the impact of terms of trade fluctuations while building up a substantial stock of financial assets held in the Government Pension Fund Global. The value of this fund was about 200% of mainland GDP, some USD 800 billion, by the end of 2013.

This annex reviews recent action taken on recommendations from previous Surveys. Recommendations that are new in this Survey are listed in the relevant chapter. An indication of the first year in which recommendations appeared is given in parentheses (except that we have not tracked back before 2005).