Stable growth in mainland GDP

Both the three-month growth and the monthly growth in mainland GDP was pulled up by retail. Most industries generally experienced growth over the three-month period, including construction, services and manufacturing, for example information and communication, finance and insurance and professional, scientific and technical activities. Growth in service industries overall amounted to 0.7 per cent in February to April compared with November to January. The industry did however experience zero growth in March to April, but this must be interpreted in connection with strong growth in the preceding month.

Production of other goods, which includes primary industries, construction and electricity production, dampens the three-month growth. This is mainly due to modest electricity production in the first months of 2019. Fishing contributes negatively to three-month growth as well, caused by low growth in February. Electricity production and fishing collectively dragged down three-month growth 0,2 per cent.

Consumption

Household consumption was 0.8 per cent higher in February-April compared to November-January. This is primarily explained by increased car sales in March. Car sales did on the other hand decline significantly in April. Final consumption expenditure in general government increased 0.4 per cent in the same period.

Investments

Investments grew 1.1 per cent in February-April compared to November-January and 7.3 per cent from March to April. Investments in dwellings increased 1.5 per cent from March to April, and 0.6 per cent from November-January to February-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, manufacturing, mining and power supply investments. Planned investments in petrol activities display a 14.5 per cent growth over the last three-month period, but this figure may be revised down when information on completed investments exists. New information for Q1 has resulted in a downward volume adjustment of petroleum investments from a 2.1 per cent growth published in May, to a 4.1 per cent decline.

Imports and exports

Exports of traditional goods fell 2.6 per cent from November-January to February-April. Refined and chemical products especially contributed to the decline. Imports of traditional goods grew 3 per cent over the same period, driven by machined and equipment.

Revisions

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.

Quarterly growth for mainland GDP in Q1 has been adjusted from 0.3 per cent growth to 0.4 per cent growth, compared to the figures published in May. Growth in Q1 household consumption also gets an upward adjustment, from 0.6 to 0.7 per cent. The latter is manly due to new information regarding cross border trade.