Mainland-Norway's gross domestic product grew at a slower pace of 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter from a quarter ago, Statistics Norway said Wednesday.

The sequential growth was forecast to slow to 0.5 percent from a revised 0.8 percent expansion logged in the third quarter.

At the same time, the overall GDP, recovered in the fourth quarter as expected, up 0.4 percent, helped by an increase in petroleum activities. That follows a revised 0.6 percent fall in the third quarter.

Driven by both goods and service production, Mainland-Norway GDP growth increased to 3.5 percent in 2012 from 2.5 percent in 2011.

In comparison, the average annual growth of GDP for mainland Norway was 4.7 percent in the period from 2004 to 2007.

RTTNews