Norway business outlook brightens, central bank survey shows

OSLO - Growth in the Norwegian business sector has declined slightly over the past three months while the outlook for the next half year is more optimistic, a central bank business survey showed on Tuesday.

"Contacts expect activity to pick up again, and they are more optimistic than in November, primarily owing to the roll-out of vaccines," Norges Bank said.

The sentiment index, most of which was collected from Jan. 25-Feb. 12, is one of the last domestic data releases ahead of Norges Bank's March 18 monetary policy meeting.

(Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Gwladys Fouche) ((terje.solsvik@thomsonreuters.com; +47 918 666 70))