Index of industrial production, January 2002

The Norwegian government has decided to reduce the oil production by 150 000 barrels (per day) effective as of from 1 January 2002. Hence, the oil production has decreased by approximately 5 per cent. As for the electricity, gas and water supply the production has increased from December 2001 to January 2002.

Increase in production of durables

In the last months the decline in industrial production is partially caused by the production of intermediate goods. The activity in capital goods is somewhat better, although according to seasonally adjusted figures it shows a downward trend. The group of consumer goods, food and beverages contribute to an increase of approximately 4 per cent, especially caused by the production of fodder. Furthermore, the production of furniture has improved. As a result of this improvement, the group of durables has increased considerably by 8 per cent. The activity in production of oil platforms had a modest increase due to increased demand.

The last twelve months

From January 2001 to January 2002, the production of basic metal decreased. The decrease was a result of the lesser demand for basic metals products. Similarly, electrical and optical equipment had a downward trend in January 2002. In comparison, working day adjusted figures show that industry production from January 2001 to January 2002 has picked up by 0.5 per cent. The improvement is mainly due to the strong increase in the industry of beverages and the gradual rise in the industry of oil platforms.

New weights in the production index

From January 2002 onwards the weighting system used in the calculation of the index is changed. In the index before January 2002 weights with a lag of 3 year were used, whilst in the new method weights from 2001 are used. For more information about these weights, click on "weights" in the left column. Due to new information production figures for electricity, gas and steam supply for 2001 have been calculated once more. These changes have effected the over all index and the energy goods.