COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - The Danish central bank on Wednesday almost doubled its forecast for economic growth this year due to strong production by drug maker Novo Nordisk and the restart of natural gas production in the North Sea.
The central bank expects GDP to increase by 2.4% this year and 1.4% next year, up from a previous forecast of 1.3% for both years.
The higher growth projection was partly due to the increase in production abroad by Danish pharmaceutical companies and the restart this month of Denmark's Tyra gas field, which was shut for redevelopment in 2019, the central bank said.
"Without these two factors, we estimate that the Danish economy will grow at a more subdued rate of 0.8% this year," Governor Christian Kettel Thomsen said in a statement.
Novo Nordisk makes in-demand weight loss and diabetes drugs under the brand names Wegovy and Ozempic and the bank said its production abroad is included in Denmark's GDP even though many of the jobs are located outside the country.
The pharmaceutical giant's market valuation recently surpassed both Tesla and Visa, making it the world's 12th most valuable company.
Core inflation, which does not include the prices of energy and non-processed food, is expected to be 2.3% in 2024, 2.8% in 2025 and 2.0% in 2026, the central bank said.
(Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Stine Jacobsen and Miral Fahmy)
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