- Astrid Meland
Commentator in VG. Writes about everything from Norwegian politics to gender.
RECORD GROWTH IN PRICES: From 2022 to 2023, the prices of food in Norway increased by as much as 10 per cent. This is the highest annual increase since 1982. In Sweden, food prices rose by 5.5 per cent in the same period. In the Storting on Wednesday, the finance minister had to respond to the price shock. Photo: Rodrigo Freitas / NTB
Trygve Slagsvold Vedum believes that we Norwegians do not need to look jealously over the border. Because there is much that is worse there.
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Despite being a snowy Wednesday in January, it sparkled in the Storting’s Question Time this week.
A united opposition had armed itself. Minister of Finance Trygve Slagsvold Vedum had to answer for the record high prices.
Border trade increases. And not just on food.
Swedish newspapers write about empty fuel pumps because of all the harry trade from Norway. Sweden reduced the fee by four kroner from the new year.
GLASS HALF FULL: Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum believes that things will turn around in 2024 and that the economy will improve. On Wednesday, he stood in the Storting. In the background Hans Andreas Limi (Frp). Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten / NTB
In the Storting, the Conservative Party’s Heidi Nordby Lunde suggested that it might be just as well for most people about the government does not got up in the morning.
The price increase for food in the last year is the worst in Europe. It has not been worse since 1982. While the Swedes have managed to reverse the trend.
Why this comparison with other countries, asked Vedum. What matters to Norwegians is not how Swedes are doing, but how things are going in Norway! He then immediately began to compare.
– Swedish conditions, said Vedum, and explained what is worse in Sweden.
He didn’t talk about the crime. But that industrial worker wages are much lower than ours and that the Swedes have had to shrink their consumption much more than the Norwegians.
GOT EDUCATION ABOUT KRONEIS: – If we go back to the 1960s, krone ices cost 1 kroner. Was the crown ice cream cheaper for people in the 60s than it is today? The answer is no, said Vedum to Frps Roy Steffensen (pictured). Vedum was probably thinking that we spend less of our salary on food. But only adjusted for inflation, the krone ice cream would only cost around NOK 16. Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten / NTB
But what about the Swedish prices that are starting to go in the right direction?
The government’s new “talking point” is about talking about the fact that Norway has become the worst in terms of price increases.
They want to go back in time. And points out that at the beginning the price increase was lower in Norway. Not least because of the government’s policy, they believe. Norwegians received electricity subsidies and agricultural settlements that dampened food prices.
And it’s not completely out of thin air. From 2021 to 2022, for example, Swedish food prices rose extremely. Abroad, prices went straight up and ended up at higher levels earlier. This took longer in Norway.
In countries without central wage settlements, such as the USA, it is, among other things, about increased wages which quickly translated into increased prices. Whereas now, as inflation sets a record in Norway, the low krone exchange rate is an explanation. It is expensive to trade foreign goods with Norwegian kroner.
The government will look at the entire period from October 2021 until today, because then Norway will come out better than its neighbours.
The opposition is preoccupied with the last year. Then Norway comes out worst.
ANSWER ABOUT FOOD PRICES: Minister of Industry Jan Christian Vestre (Ap) (whom you see in the back of your head) answered questions about food prices and competition. Digitization Minister Karianne Tung (Ap) also answered during question time. Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten / NTB
FRP representative Roy Steffensen bullied Slagsvold Vedum because his glass is always half full.
Steffensen pointed to the times the Minister of Finance has turned the poster upside down, and concluded that people wanted better advice. They also got worse.
Why should we trust Vedum now, when he believes that 2024 will be better?
Of course, one becomes uncertain when centrist parties say something other than that everything was better before.
But when the government announces a little more optimism, it is not out of thin air.
Støre and Vedum only report the same Norges Bank, Statistics Norway and international experts.
As we know, the experts have been wrong in recent years. But now they are on the third attempt. Then they hit enough.
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Published: 18.01.24 at 13:18
2024-01-18 12:18:51
#Comment #Scared #Swedish #conditions
