Registered unemployment was 2.3 per cent of the labour force in October. Unemployment has declined for all occupational groups, and has been most pronounced in manufacturing, building and construction and the engineering and ICT sectors. There are probably limitations to how much the supply of Norwegian labour can increase in the period ahead. Labour participation rates are high, particularly when taking into account demographic developments. Developments in the labour market are similar to those observed prior to the period of accelerating wage and cost inflation that started in 1998, but wage growth so far has been fairly moderate. Several factors may have contributed to this. An increase in inward labour migration and the opportunities provided by an international labour market may have prompted participants in local and centralised wage negotiations to place greater emphasis on the considerably higher wage level in Norway relative to our trading partners and on potential job vulnerability. Foreign companies with contracts in Norway account for a substantial share of inward labour migration. Labour inflows from the new EU member states still appear to be growing, with the construction industry absorbing a particularly large share. In 2006, the number of persons employed  BIS Review 108/2006  1  from new EU member states who are not resident in Norway is estimated at close to 30 000, i.e. an increase of 12,000 since 2005. Inward labour migration has reduced bottlenecks in some industries. However, despite increased labour market flexibility, the risk of higher growth in labour costs is now rising.

The main basis for these examinations is the appendix to the Inflation Report that I mentioned earlier. One might think that it would be even better if more, and independent, agents took an active part in serious assessment. From time to time, assessments or assessment reports are commissioned. For instance, the National Institute of Economic Research 1 was given the task of producing background and facts prior to the Committee on Finance’s assessment in 2002. Last year the Committee on Finance decided to commission an independent, in-depth assessment of Swedish monetary policy during the period 19952005, that is, the ten-year period during which the inflation target has acted as official anchor for Swedish monetary policy. This assessment is being made by two international experts in this field, and it will, for instance, illustrate whether the inflation target is correctly designed to ensure price stability, to what degree the monetary policy conducted has led to attaining the inflation target during this period and the background and forms for the monetary policy decisions. This is something that I and my colleagues in the Executive Board welcome and I look forward to the analyses and debates this assessment will lead to. Of course, one can regard the general debate as an examination of our activities and as an indicator of how well we explain our monetary policy. However, it is rare that particularly thorough comparisons of, for instance, the forecasts published by the Riksbank and others are made in the debate. The debate thus cannot replace systematic assessments.