The Norwegian economy is a prosperous bastion of welfare capitalism, featuring a combination of free market activity and government intervention. The government controls key areas, such as the vital petroleum sector, through large-scale state enterprises. The country is richly endowed with natural resources - petroleum, hydropower, fish, forests, and minerals - and is highly dependent on its oil production and international oil prices, with oil and gas accounting for one-third of exports. Only Saudi Arabia and Russia export more oil than Norway. Norway opted to stay out of the EU during a referendum in November 1994; nonetheless, as a member of the European Economic Area, it contributes sizably to the EU budget. The government has moved ahead with privatization. Although Norwegian oil production peaked in 2000, natural gas production is still rising. Norwegians realize that once their gas production peaks they will eventually face declining oil and gas revenues; accordingly, Norway has been saving its oil-and-gas-boosted budget surpluses in a Government Petroleum Fund, which is invested abroad and now is valued at more than $250 billion. After lackluster growth of less than 1% in 2002-03, GDP growth picked up to 3-4% in 2004-06. Norway's economy remains buoyant. Domestic economic activity is, and will continue to be, the main driver of growth, supported by high consumer confidence and strong investment spending in the offshore oil and gas sector.
More finance information from Norway:
General Economic Links:
| Chase.com |
| With many branches across the U.S., Chase provides many personal and business banking services
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| DealBook |
| The New York Times online daily digest of finance news and analysis is constantly updated during the market day.
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| Financial Times |
| This venerable international business newspaper reports extensively on business and stock markets.
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| Financial-portal.com |
Portal presents comprehensive financial resources, articles, news, stats, indexes, financial institutions etc:
- articles on financial topics
- financial news
- latest currency charts
- latest gold, silver, platinum and other precious metal prices
- current financial indexes and dynamic graphs
- universal currency converters (all major currencies)
- stock, commodity and other major exchanges
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| Finweb.com - the independent financial portal |
| "Financial security. Everyone wants it; few have it. Many do not realize that true financial security requires strength in every area of one’s financial affairs. It requires a systematic approach, a strategic plan implemented over time, in order to obtain it. But it can be obtained. With the proper educational training and discipline, financial stability and security is within anyone’s grasp. That’s why we’re here: to provide you with a solid foundation of valuable financial knowledge from which to proceed..."
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| Fitch Ratings |
| Provides independent global credit rating information for the world’s credit markets
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| Forbes.com |
| Extensive coverage of business and financial news, Forbes is one of the premier sites covering the world of business.
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| Google Finance |
| Google Finance provides an unclutered interface to finance news, market summary with graphs, stock quotes, top movers and other indicators. Also search companies by stock code.
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| Kiplinger |
| Personal finance site that offers calculators, business news, quotes and much more personal finance information
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| MarketWatch |
| This Dow Jones operated site provides personal finance news, advice and stock market data and analysis
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| MSN Money |
| The MSN (Microsoft Network) provides a finance portal including latest finance news, market updates and resources.
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| Yahoo Finance |
| The Yahoo search engine provides a finance portal with breaking news, market summaries and editor articles.
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