The solid growth in PPI continues

Published:

10 March 2021

The Producer Price Index (PPI) increased by 5.4 per cent in February, mainly due to continued price increase on multiple energy goods and in selected manufacturing industries. The price growth in energy goods makes the total price index for the domestic market and the export market develop in different manners.

Written by: Mats Halvorsen

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Producer price index

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Producer price index (archive)

The total PPI for the domestic market and the export market increased by 0.6 percent and 10.6 percent respectively. The main reason for the big difference in index development is the weights associated with oil and gas on the different markets. Also, the price of electricity is measured differently on the two markets, making for a visible difference in the indices.

Figure 1. Price index. 2015=100

	Total PPI	Total PPI, domestic market	Total PPI, export market
Jan. 2015	100	99.8	100.2
Feb. 2015	102.1	101.7	102.5
March 2015	103.5	101.4	105.5
April 2015	103.5	102.2	104.8
May 2015	103.4	101.9	104.9
June 2015	103.7	100.7	106.8
July 2015	101.4	99.2	103.5
Aug. 2015	97	97.5	96.5
Sep. 2015	96.8	97.9	95.8
Oct. 2015	97.4	99.4	95.4
Nov. 2015	97.8	100.5	95
Dec. 2015	93.4	97.8	89.1
Jan. 2016	89.2	98.5	80.5
Feb. 2016	86.9	96.1	78.3
March 2016	88	97.4	79.2
April 2016	88.7	98.3	79.6
May 2016	91.1	100	82.7
June 2016	93.7	102	85.8
July 2016	94.1	100.6	87.7
Aug. 2016	92.4	99.6	85.5
Sep. 2016	91	98.9	83.4
Oct. 2016	93	100.8	85.6
Nov. 2016	95.3	102.3	88.6
Dec. 2016	100.2	102.2	97.8
Jan. 2017	100.5	102.7	98
Feb. 2017	103.2	103.7	102.5
March 2017	102.2	102.6	101.5
April 2017	100	102.3	97.5
May 2017	99.2	102.3	95.9
June 2017	96.7	100.2	92.9
July 2017	95.7	100.4	90.6
Aug. 2017	96.1	101	90.9
Sep. 2017	98.9	102.8	94.6
Oct. 2017	101.3	102.9	99.5
Nov. 2017	104.6	105.1	103.8
Dec. 2017	107.6	105.7	109.3
Jan. 2018	110.9	107.4	114.3
Feb. 2018	108.1	108.6	107.4
March 2018	108.7	108.7	108.4
April 2018	112.3	108.4	115.9
May 2018	113.6	108.8	118.1
June 2018	116.1	112.3	119.6
July 2018	117.3	113.5	120.9
Aug. 2018	118	113.8	121.9
Sep. 2018	119.7	114.9	124.3
Oct. 2018	124.1	114.4	133.6
Nov. 2018	120.2	114.1	126.1
Dec. 2018	115.9	113.8	117.8
Jan. 2019	116.3	114.3	118.1
Feb. 2019	116.8	114.9	118.5
March 2019	114.4	114.4	114.5
April 2019	115.2	115.3	115.2
May 2019	114.1	115.2	113.2
June 2019	108.5	113.8	104.2
July 2019	107.2	114.6	101
Aug. 2019	106.9	114.2	100.8
Sep. 2019	106.9	114.3	100.8
Oct. 2019	107	115.3	100.1
Nov. 2019	108.8	116.4	102.5
Dec. 2019	113.3	117.3	110.1
Jan. 2020	111.8	116.2	108.2
Feb. 2020	108.1	115.1	102
March 2020	100	111.6	89.9
April 2020	96.7	111.1	84.1
May 2020	94.1	111.1	79
June 2020	92.9	110.1	77.7
July 2020	92.9	111.1	76.7
Aug. 2020	94	111.8	78.4
Sep. 2020	96.6	112.9	82.2
Oct. 2020	100.6	113	89.7
Nov. 2020	105.1	112.6	98.7
Dec. 2020	106.8	114.7	100
Jan. 2021	112.5	119	107.2
Feb. 2021	118.6	119.7	118.6

Significant price growth in oil and gas extraction

The upwards price development on natural gas continued, with a significant increase in February. The growth that has been going on since August now makes for the highest gas price in two years.

The price on crude oil also grew considerably, and the price level is now about the same as it was in February 2020. The substantial growth is probably partially a result of the OPEC+ meeting in January.

Price increases in important manufacturing industries

The prices in the manufacturing sector continued to grow in February. In the spring of 2020, the price index for the manufacturing industries combined had a significant decrease following the outbreak of covid-19. Since June, however, the prices have increased continuously, though marginally, and in February the prices increased by an additional 1.7 per cent. The price increase was mainly due to growth in refined petroleum goods.

Other important industries contributing to the total index increase were manufacture of chemical products, pharmaceutical products, basic metals and food products.