Statistics Norway changes release times to 8 am

After a new release time of 7 am was announced on our web page at the end of July, Statistics Norway has been contacted by several people in the finance industry. They have pointed out that such an early release time might lead to increased volatility in the buying and selling of the Norwegian krone at a time of day when the markets are thin. By adjusting the new release time from 7 to 8 am we believe we have found a good balance between the needs of Statistics Norway and the finance industry.

The motivation behind the change in release times is that our statistics is primarily used during regular working hours in Norway. By publishing our statistics earlier in the day it will be available for our users throughout their working day.

Statistics Norway has released our statistics at 10 am for almost 20 years. This schedule was chosen in part because all of our statistical releases had to be printed in a paper format, which was our primary channel of dissemination at the time. Today there are no such technical limitations that prevents us from publishing our statistics earlier in the day.