Enterprises in Western Norway do not believe in politicians – Petro.no

Executive Vice President of Sparebanken Vest, Ragnhild Janbu Fresvik, presented Vestlands index under Vestlandskonferansen 2015 yesterday, which tells how the companies in Western Norway looks at the future.

In the productivity gap that has developed in the economy in recent decades, will be needed for restructuring in the future. The survey therefore asked businesses in Western Norway extent to which they have faith in the government’s ability to contribute in a restructuring process and their own faith to succeed in the restructuring process.

– The results show that companies have a weak faith in government’s ability restructuring; only 26 percent believe that the government will manage to facilitate restructuring in the Norwegian economy. The entire 63 percent believe in the company’s ability to adapt, says Fresvik adding:

– This is perhaps not encouraging reading for politicians, but it is nevertheless a reality that it is the companies themselves who must lead depends in such restructuring.

Perhaps one of the most striking findings in Vestkanttorvet index was when businesses in Western Norway were asked; which costs are expected to increase in the coming quarters?

– The survey shows that companies expect that labor costs will come down significantly. 55 percent of companies expected cost increase in Q4 2014 attributed increased payroll expenses, but this share has now fallen to 31 percent, says Fresvik.

Western study is a collaboration between industry associations in Western Norway. Over 1,500 companies have a total participated in the survey, which shows that oil and gas companies are less optimistic than the rest. 46.3 percent in the Stavanger region expect that 2015 as in 2014, while 22.7 believe it goes better and 30.9 think it does worse.

– drop in oil prices we have are characterized by low demand, while as we see increased production in OPEC countries, combined with increased supply from the United States and Canada. It creates huge waves when oil prices halved in this way, but it is also easy to become of history. The industry has been exposed to the same before and current oil prices are now at the average of the oil price has been on since 1970, says Fresvik.

Save Bank West on Vestlandskonferansen last year.