Increased growth in the Norwegian economy

The three-month growth in mainland GDP is mainly due to increased service production. Though the industry experienced sound growth in May to July, it underwent a reduction in July compared to the previous month. This was largely due to a drop in retail trade, but could be a result of seasonal adjustment and might change following new observations for August.

Manufacturing and mining grew 1.2 per cent in the three-month period, after a minor reduction observed in June came to a halt in July. Production of other goods, which includes aquaculture, construction, as well as electricity production, increased 0.7 per cent. The rise was driven by the two former. Construction has been subject to a uniform growth since the beginning 2018. The production of electricity was low in all three months to July, subduing the overall increase in production of other goods as a result.

GDP for petroleum activities and ocean transport grew 1.6 per cent in May to July compared to the three previous months. The production of crude oil and natural gas was high throughout the summer months and contributed to the rise. GDP increased 0.9 per cent in May to July, but fell 0.2 per cent in July.

Slightly weaker growth in household consumption

Household consumption increased 0.5 per cent in May to July compared to the previous three-month period. This is weaker than the second quarter growth and can be explained by lower consumption of goods in both June and July. The reduction in July was mainly due to car purchases, while other consumption of goods experienced general growth. Consumption of goods fell 0.3 per cent from May to July. Service consumption has increased relatively steadily over several months, growing 0.4 per cent from June to July and 0.9 per cent from May to July compared to the preceding three months. Public consumption increased 0.4 per cent in the three-month period.

Increased investments in dwellings

Investments in dwellings has seen a continued decline since August 2017, but increased in July 2018. This recent rise is still not enough to prevent the investments in May to July from being 4.3 per cent lower than for February to April.

Good monthly information for other investments is lacking. This means that information on planned investments, as reported by firms in the industry, is used for petroleum investments. Petroleum investments increased 13.1 per cent in the 2nd quarter, and the solid growth is maintained in the three months to July.

Exports of traditional goods declined

Exports of traditional goods fell 5 per cent in July, while imports of traditional goods grew 1.7 per cent. About half of the decline in exports was due to the fall in refined goods, but metals, machines and equipment also contributed. Over the three-month period to July, exports of traditional goods declined 0.3 per cent. 

Revisions of previously published figures

With new monthly figures, comes revisions. The statistics used will not normally be subject to a revision, but seasonally adjusted series may, however, be changed. This is a consequence of new information being incorporated into the seasonal adjustment. As additional months are included in the data, the effect of new observations will become ever smaller. In conjunction with the release of figures for July 2018, seasonally adjusted 2nd quarter GDP growth for mainland Norway is temporarily revised up from 0.5 to 0.6 per cent. The new observations do not result in any changes in consumption compared to the previously published 2nd quarter figures, while the growth in exports and imports has been revised to 1.2 and 4.2 per cent respectively. The revised export figures correspond to a downward adjustment of 0.3 per cent compared to the quarterly figures released in August. Imports have been adjusted upwards by 0.1 per cent.