A Real Wage Rate Index had been published since December 1992, replacing the real disposable income indices provided in New Zealand's initial report on the Covenant.

The situation is made worse by price inflation, estimated at just under 20 per cent in the 12 months before mid-2005, resulting in a decline of real wage rates by about 10 per cent.

At the same time, real wages reflected patterns in rates of inflation and did not greatly diverge from labour productivity trends.

The recovery from the crisis of 1996 was robust enough to substantially reduce unemployment rates, stem the decline in real wages and reduce poverty rates.

This trend has been fuelled by domestic factors, strong growth in real wages and a high rate of exchange for the NOK which weaken Norwegian industries that are exposed to international competition, and the international economic slowdown.

Meanwhile, domestic demand continued to grow at high rates (7.7 per cent) owing to a substantial increase in private consumption (6.8 per cent), driven by improved employment indicators, a modest rise in real wages, persistently low interest rates in a number of countries, which provided a stimulus to consumer lending, and currency appreciation, which brought down the prices of imported final consumption goods.