a result of lower house price inflation. nevertheless, growth in household debt will be higher than growth in disposable income until 2008. as a result, the debt burden, i. e. debt in relation to disposable income, will rise to a level that is appreciably higher than the level prevailing at the end of the 1980s. the debt burden for norwegian households is relatively high compared with other countries. structural factors such as the percentage of owner - occupied dwellings and differences in tax systems are important to explaining the differences in debt burdens. the transition in monetary policy from an exchange rate target to an inflation target has probably made it less likely that households will be exposed to a “ dual shock ” in the form of higher unemployment and higher interest rates, as was the case during the banking crisis. as a result of the change in monetary policy and more stable macroeconomic developments, households may also have chosen to adapt to a higher debt burden than before. ii. household wealth household gross financial assets have increased more than debt in recent years ( measured in nok ). this financial buffer reduces some of the concern related to debt growth. debt as a percentage of gross financial assets is lower today than at the end of the 1980s. insurance claims account for a substantial share of household wealth. insurance claims are illiquid, however, and cannot be utilised if payment problems arise. however, debt as a percentage of liquid financial assets, i. e. financial assets minus insurance claims, is also lower now than it was at the end of the 1980s. the strong increase in wealth indicates that the debt growth in recent years has not led to a reduction in saving. this contrasts sharply to the situation in the 1980s. at that time, debt growth was also high, but it financed consumption and not investment, and overall saving fell sharply. in addition to financial assets, households also have housing wealth. there is considerable uncertainty attached to the estimates for housing wealth. a cautious estimate indicates that household housing wealth is 11 per cent higher than financial assets and more than 40 per cent higher than debt. total debt is unevenly distributed one worrying aspect of these developments is that debt and wealth are unequally distributed across different household groups. compared with the 1980s, the debt burden has increased in low - and middle - income households ( deciles 1 - 6 ). households with higher income ( deciles 7 - 9 ) have the highest debt burden. the debt burden for households with

that growth will be at least as strong six months ahead as it is now. the figures show that capacity utilisation in the business sector is gradually increasing. some petroleum - related activities and parts of the construction sector are experiencing capacity problems, but so far, the pressure on factors of production does not seem to be particularly high in other industries. all industries report plans for moderate to solid growth in investment. in tandem with the economic upturn, employment is also rising throughout the private sector, with in general little evidence of wage pressures. developments in hedmark and oppland counties are largely consistent with the overall picture for norway. the industry structure in hedmark and oppland does not differ substantially in most sectors from the country as a whole. the exception is the primary industries, which play a far more important role in these two counties than in the rest of the country. the largest farming areas in norway are to be found in hedmark and oppland, and employment is high in the primary industries. the share employed in the public sector is also somewhat higher than in norway as a whole. unemployment has also been markedly lower in the inland region than in most other regions in recent years. according to the most recent reports, the economic situation in the region is favourable. participating companies report rising employment and solid growth in all industries. in retail trade and in the construction sector, activity is brisk and increasing, with a somewhat wait - and - see approach to future developments. growth in manufacturing has slowed slightly, but is likely to stabilise. investment is rising in all sectors. enterprises in the region envisage a slight rise in prices in the period ahead. inflation has edged up since the beginning of 2004. in october, the year - on - year rise in consumer prices adjusted for tax changes and excluding energy products ( cpi - ate ) was 1. 2 per cent. adjusted for the estimated direct effect of the interest rate fall on house rents, the rise in prices is estimated at 1. 3 per cent in october. total consumer prices ( cpi ) rose by 1. 8 per cent in the same period. prices for domestically produced goods and services rose by 2. 0 per cent in the twelve months to october this year. the rise in prices for domestically produced consumer goods exposed to international competition has been very low this year. in october, prices for these goods were 0. 2 per cent higher than in the same month one year earlier. this probably reflects the strong