– Miserable financial management – NRK Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country

– Interest rate cut in Sweden. It is interesting, says Venstre’s fiscal policy spokesperson, Sveinung Rotevatn, to NRK.

On Wednesday, Swedes with floating interest rates on their mortgages could rejoice. The Riksbank lowered the key interest rate by a quarter to 3.75 per cent, and two further interest rate cuts have been announced this year.

Three interest rate cuts mean NOK 15,000 less in annual interest expenses if you have a loan of NOK 2 million.

In Norway, the central bank plans to cut the interest rate by 0.25 per cent towards the end of the year.

– I think it will be a long time before we see “Swedish conditions” in this area, says Rotevatn.

He meets NRK at Bankplassen in central Oslo. There is also the Engebret Café, where Venstre was founded in 1884. In his time, party leader Johan Sverdrup ran away from a bill of 2 kroner and 90 øre.

– When Lars Sponheim was Venstre leader, he traveled to Engebret 130 years later and made amends. The lesson from that history is that the bills have to be paid at one point or another – and that also applies to public spending, he says.

– Poor financial management

Rotevatn believes the parallels between Sverdrup’s unpaid dinner bill and the government’s spending are obvious.

– Støre and Vedum do the same dance every year: First they say that spending must be kept down in the state budget. Then they increase it massively a few months later. At best, it is a matter of poor financial management, says Rotevatn.

On Tuesday, the answer will come as to how much spending will be this year. A revised budget is then presented. The budget is an updated version of the state budget for 2024. Rotevatn believes that a currently unpaid bill lies there:

– Every time Trygve Slagsvold Vedum has presented a revision of the budget in May, he has increased spending. In 2022, it was 30 billion. In 2023, it was around 50 billion, he says.

Rotevatn, on the other hand, believes that politicians must use such updates to make small changes.

– But the government and the finance minister are using it as an opportunity to pour money into their ambitions and to solve their political problems, he says.

Would cut NOK 12 billion

Public expenditure also increased when Venstre was a budget partner and part of the Solberg government until 2021. Then the Norwegian economy did not struggle with overheating and high inflation.

Now Rotevatn believes that Venstre would contribute to less oil money use in the current situation. He beats his chest with some selected figures from the party’s alternative budget. The parties in opposition create such budgets to show their own priorities:

The Liberal Party, when revised, has proposed a total reduction in the use of oil money by NOK 12 billion. At the same time, the party has found room for 8.5 billion in increased defense allocations and Ukraine support, Rotevatn boasts.

– One way to get a lower interest rate is to tighten spending, he says.

Strikes back

The top left faces strong opposition from both the Labor Party and the Støre government’s budget partner SV.

The pandemic, power crisis and war are the main reasons why spending has increased in revised budgets, they point out.

– This is criticism from the Liberal Party that really falls on rock bottom, says the finance committee’s leader Tuva Moflag from the Labor Party.

She points out that billions for kindergartens, after-school care and child benefit have contributed to making the period of sharp price increases easier for most people.

– The Liberals claim that the government’s financial management is weak, and that more should have been held back from the use of oil money in order to get interest rates down. What do you say to that?

– We stay within the framework set for the use of oil money. It would be downright irresponsible if we were to put budget discipline ahead of standing up for Ukraine, says Moflag.

She comes with a sting in return for Rotevatn’s alternative budget:

– The Liberals have cut the subsidy to contractual pensions overnight. It is not exactly realistic budgeting to say that you should not take responsibility for the agreement you have had with the country’s pensioners and employees over many years.

SV’s fiscal policy spokeswoman Kari Elisabeth Kaski also believes Venstre’s criticism is totally wrong.

– It is not the size of the public budgets that is the reason for the high interest rates in Norway now. This is due to international conditions and the connection between interest rates in Norway and the krone exchange rate internationally, she says.