Last Friday, the government announced that it will adjust the budget gap that has arisen due to the rise in prices.
We are talking about potentially several tens of billions of NOK missing from the budgets because the government’s state budget last year only included a 2.8 per cent price increase in 2023.
Strong internal pressure
Dagbladet has been in contact with a number of government sources who say that they have pressed to get the Ministry of Finance to take action on the situation.
– Collapse in one to two weeks
According to what Dagbladet is aware of, the government leadership made it clear internally already in autumn last year that there would be a price adjustment. However, when and how was not made known.
A number of professionals in the government have pressured the Ministry of Finance to clarify the issue, so that they could once again reassure frustrated parts of the public sector who were steering towards red budgets in 2023.
According to Dagbladet’s information, Vedum and Støre nevertheless did not give the green light for the upward adjustment plan until “a short time” before the announcement last week.
Had to keep my mouth shut
The government therefore waited until February to signal that the budget would be adjusted for inflation in the revised national budget before the summer.
Message to Støre: – Lower the price now
In the meantime, many ministers have faced significant headwinds in the press and in their respective fields, without being able to say – as was true – that the government was working on a solution.
Dagbladet is aware that this has caused great frustration among several ministers when the government has held internal meetings.
Head of the Storting’s finance committee, Geir Pollestad (Sp) tells Dagbladet that the adjustment made before the weekend was proposed when the budget was presented and was up during the budget negotiations.
– It was absolutely necessary. Then we will know more when the revised national budget is presented about what is the right level, says Pollestad.
Couldn’t “promise money”
Both hospitals, the police and culture are fields that have been subject to very red budgets as a result of the price increase.
When not the aid percentage
When Health Minister Ingvild Kjerkol (Ap) gave this year’s hospital speech in mid-January, she stated that hospitals must tighten their finances significantly this year in order to deal with increased prices and wages.
– I wish I was standing here today with promises of more money and better times. But I have to be honest that the demanding situation we are in now reduces the room for action in the hospitals, said Kjerkol.
In the press release last Friday, Finance Minister Vedum pointed out that the activities within hospitals, the police, schools and other important services would be lower than the budget provided for without the adjustment that has now come.
Pollestad explains that although the government knew that 2.8 per cent inflation was not the right thing, they also did not know what the final figure would be in the end.
– There are major fluctuations in the economy now and the revised national budget is the place to make such adjustments. It is the level of activity in the budget that must be maintained. At the same time, the budget we adopted was tight, both for the private and public sectors. That should still be the case in the situation Norway is in, concludes Pollestad.
