Production increased three per cent

Industrial production increased by three per cent from 1997 to 1998, fuelled by sharp growth in export-oriented industries and sectors of traditional engineering industries. Production declined 0.8 per cent from November to December, calculated in seasonally adjusted figures.

Production in oil and gas extraction, manufacturing, mining and quarrying and power supply (the overall index), fell 0.6 per cent in 1998 compared with the year before. This was primarily the result of lower oil and gas production, which dropped 5.6 per cent compared to 1997.

1998 showed sharp growth in the production of capital goods, increasing 6.9 per cent compared with the year before. The increase was driven by the sharp growth in industries connected with the construction and fitting out of offshore oil platforms. Traditional export industries such as the basic metals industry and other parts of the engineering industry such as the metal products and machinery and equipment industries saw growth throughout 1998. Textiles and textile products, oil refining and the rubber and plastic products industry clearly declined during the same period. If one looks at the development from one quarter to the next in 1998, the pace of growth in manufacturing decreased, reversing into a modest decline during the final months of the year.

The output of the food, beverages and tobacco industry and wood and wood products industry clearly declined from November to December according to seasonally adjusted figures.

New Statistics
Index of production, December 1998.
The statistics are published monthly in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics. For more information contact: Oyvind.Naustdal@ssb.no, tel. +47 21 09 47 or Tom.Andersen@ssb.no, tel. +47 21 09 47 29.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 6, 1999