Sustained growth in the Norwegian economy

Retail trade was an important contributor to the three-month growth rate, with services related to oil production also seeing a notable rise. Overall, the service industries increased by 0,8 per cent in December-February, compared to September-November. Manufacturing and mining grew by 1.9 per cent, mainly driven by growth in the workshop and shipping industry. Production of other goods fell by 0.3 per cent in the same period due to weak figures in electricity production, while there was a clear growth in construction. The sharp decline in electricity production also reduced mainland GDP by nearly 0.2 percentage points.

The gross product in the mainland economy fell by 0.3 per cent in February, following a corresponding strong growth in January. Electricity production contributed to the drop, as well as a sharp decline in fishing, after strong figures in January.

Weak consumption of goods

Household consumption increased by 0.2 per cent in the period December-February compared with September-November. The increase is related to a growth in service consumption of 0.5 per cent for the three-month period, as well as an increase in consumption abroad. Meanwhile, the consumption of goods fell by 0.1 per cent. The fall was mitigated by increased car purchases.

Public consumption increased by 0.6 per cent in December-February.

Investments

Gross investments fell by 2.2 per cent in the period December-February compared with September-November. This is related to the delivery of combat aircraft that were registered in the investment figures for September. From January to February, total investments fell by 2.1 per cent.

Housing investments fell during the first half of 2018 and increased again in the second half. Housing investments increased by 0.9 per cent from September-November to December-February.

We lack monthly data for other types of investments; consequently,  information on planned investments, as reported by firms in the manufacturing sector, is used to estimate petroleum, manufacturing, mining and power supply investments.

Strong growth in exports of traditional goods

Exports of traditional goods increased by 5.8 per cent in December-February, driven by sales of electrical equipment, auto diesel and fish products. From January to February, the growth of traditional goods was 1.2 per cent. The imports of traditional goods increased by 3.1 per cent during the same three-month period. Mainly machines and equipment, as well as auto diesel contributed to the growth. From January to February, imports of traditional goods fell by 2.3 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.  Mainland-GDP for the fourth quarter of 2018 is adjusted from 0.9 percent growth to 1.0 percent growth, compared to the figures published one month ago.