NORWAY'S KEY PRIORITY

BLOOMBERG - Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg is ready to start reining in oil spending after the government began putting money back into the sovereign wealth fund again.

The Norwegian government in June made its first deposit into its wealth fund since the end of 2015. Now that the economy is in full recovery and the labor market is tightening, winding down fiscal stimulus is a key priority in next year's budget, the prime minister said in an interview in Arendal, on Norway's southern coast.

"It's the tangible things in the economy that matter," Solberg said. "We ensured that people were employed, and we made sure that the challenges were minimized for people in Norway -- now it is important that we're able to show that we have also managed to scale down the use of oil money."

Norway's center-right government in May said it planned to plow 225 billion kroner ($27 billion) of its oil wealth into the economy this year, with 21 billion kroner forecast to be withdrawn from the wealth fund. As the economy strengthens and government revenue from the oil and gas industry improves with rising crude prices, the government will now need to ensure that the recovery isn't hampered by a shortage of workers in some industries.

"We're beginning to see shortages in some parts of the labor market, which obviously have an impact on how much we can stimulate the Norwegian economy," Solberg said. "It's important in the good times as well that we use money on the long-term measures to get people into jobs."

The government will present next year's budget on October 8.

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Earlier:

2018, June, 27, 10:35:00 U.S. WANT NORWAY'S MONEY REUTERS - Norway, which shares an Arctic border with Russia, lacks a “credible plan” how to meet NATO’s spending target, U.S. President Donald Trump said in a letter to the country’s prime minister, the Norwegian daily VG reported on Tuesday.

2018, May, 23, 10:00:00 NORWAY'S OIL EXIT BLOOMBERG - The fund shocked markets around the world in November when it asked for permission to divest oil and gas companies to reduce financial risk, arguing Norway as a whole is already heavily exposed to oil as western Europe’s biggest petroleum producer. At the time of the proposal, the fund held about $40 billion of shares in oil giants such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

2018, March, 28, 10:50:00 NORWAY'S OIL THREAT BLOOMBERG - The government has paid out 109 billion kroner ($14 billion) since 2005 to explorers such as Lundin Petroleum AB and Repsol SA. It helped attract more companies to Norway, nearly doubling the pace of exploration and leading to key discoveries such as the multi-billion-barrel Johan Sverdrup field.

2017, August, 31, 12:10:00 U.S. WANT NORWAY Norway’s $970-billion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, should allocate a bigger share of its investments to renewable energy to boost returns, a U.S. energy policy think-tank said

2016, November, 11, 18:30:00 NORWAY'S INVESTMENT DOWN 21% Total investment in oil and natural gas extraction in Norway was 21% lower in the first half of 2016 compared with the first half of 2015, a decline of about 20.9 billion Norwegian kroner (US $3.5 billion). However, investment cuts have affected some segments of the industry more than others.

2016, July, 6, 18:15:00 IMF WANT NORWAY Directors emphasized the need for continuing structural reforms to support a successful transition and improve the efficiency of the economy. They saw merit in continued restraint in wage settlements and further reforms to reinvigorate productivity growth. Aligning public sector pensions with recent private sector reforms and reforms to sickness and disability pensions could increase labor force participation. Directors also saw scope for efficiency gains from reducing tax preferences for owner-occupied housing and relaxing supply restrictions in the housing market.

2014, December, 3, 21:15:00 NORWAY'S OIL FUND OPPORTUNITY Norway’s oil fund can carry on investing in oil.