mechanism. the situation in norway differs from that of its nordic neighbour countries. sales of swedish and finnish high - tech products are growing strongly in volume terms, but prices are falling. denmark has a diversified business sector, which is overall moving on a steady path. growth among our trading partners remains solid. high commodity prices are exerting upward pressure on consumer price inflation in a number of countries, although underlying inflation remains low. economic growth in the us probably picked up again in the first quarter. in japan, growth appears to be solid. in the euro area, confidence indicators point to optimism in the business sector. there is a broad - based expansion in the swedish economy, while some indicators in the uk have shown weak developments. the central banks in the us, canada and switzerland have raised their key rates by 0. 25 percentage points since mid - march. market expectations concerning key rates in other countries have risen slightly. for the next year, market pricing indicates that key rates will be increased in the euro area, the uk, sweden, switzerland, the us, canada, japan and australia. in norway, the key rate was last raised by 0. 25 percentage point to 2. 5 per cent at the monetary policy meeting on 16 march this year. financial markets still expect a gradual increase in the sight deposit rate ahead. in line with developments in global markets, the rise in norwegian long - term interest rates has gathered pace. markets have factored in that the key rate will be lower in norway than in the us and the uk at the end of 2009, but higher than in the euro area and sweden. in the past couple of years, low interest rates and relatively high growth in real wages has contributed to strong growth in household purchasing power and consumption. increased housing wealth and equity price gains may also have contributed to the high level of consumer demand and will probably continue to make a contribution ahead. with the prospect of an improving labour market and relatively low inflation through the projection period, growth in household real wage income will probably remain fairly high in the years ahead. a gradual normalisation of the interest rate level will curb growth in disposable income as the interest burden increases. consumption growth is also expected to moderate in the years ahead. wide fluctuations in asset prices may be a potential source of instability in demand and output in the somewhat longer run. house prices and household debt have risen sharply since the mid - 1990s. developments in the 1990s can probably be viewed to some extent as a delayed adaptation

by the same token, norwegian companies can choose their debt and equity structure independently of the government's financial investments. both mainland private saving and business fixed investment have been high in recent years. thus a possible weak capital market has not been reflected in a low level of investment and saving. as a result of developments in the late 1990s, equities and funds make up an increasing share of households ’ total assets. the equity ratio of enterprises strengthened in the 1990s, with a rise in new equity capital from the markets in particular. norwegian limited companies excluding petroleum companies, financial undertakings and government activities, and groups and holding companies. the norwegian loan and capital market probably has weaknesses nevertheless, with thin securities markets and little breadth in investor and owner environments compared with some other countries. the reasons, and hence the solutions, can probably be found in the structure of the taxation of dwellings, property and financial assets, in a high level of government ownership of enterprises and in the organisation of pension saving in norway. investing even more government capital in norway would reduce the return on investments in the norwegian business sector and prompt other investors to invest elsewhere. using even more capital in the norwegian economy would probably also lead to a rapid relocation of jobs to other countries, as the krone would tend to appreciate.