Norges Bank's Regional Network

Abstract

The regional network was primarily established to provide up-to-date information about the economic situation and the outlook ahead through direct contact with enterprises. Regular communication with local contacts in Norway’s business sector provides us with earlier and more frequent information than available official statistics can supply. The regional network also provides supplementary information about areas not covered by other statistical sources, and is a forum for exploring views on current issues. This article describes the organisation of the network and the kind of information collected from it. In the last section, information from the regional network is compared with official statistics. The network seems to be providing accurate and early signals about developments in key economic variables such as output, employment and investment.