The prices of oil, gas, and refined petroleum products increased for the second consecutive month from August to September. Prices of energy goods increased by 9.2 per cent. However, prices within the power supply sector decreased by 10.3 per cent, mitigating the overall price increase of energy goods.
Prices of manufactured goods up 0.8 per cent
Prices of manufacturing increased from August to September. The main reason for the upturn was that prices of refined petroleum products rose by just over 13 per cent.
— Excluding refined petroleum products, prices of manufactured goods have now fallen for four consecutive months, says Espen Kristiansen, head of division for price statistics, Statistics Norway.
The prices of basic metals and chemical products continued to decline
An important explanation for the price decline in manufacturing is that prices of basic metals and chemical products have fallen for the fourth consecutive month from August to September. In total, the price decreases from May to September amounted to 15.5 per cent for chemical products and slightly under 10 per cent for basic metals.
— The falling prices of basic metals and chemical products illustrate that export-oriented industries are experiencing the most significant price decline. However, this comes after a period of very strong price growth, says Kristiansen.
There was a mostly continuous price increase in basic metals and chemical products from the fall of 2020 to the summer of 2022. From July 2022 to May 2023, prices in both industries declined, but there were also months of price increases during this period.
In September 2023, prices are still more than 50 per cent higher than the price level in the fall of 2020 for both industries.
Historical price decline for meat and meat products in September
Prices of food products decreased for the second consecutive month in September. From July to August, the main reason was the decrease in seafood prices. From August to September, it was meat and meat products that contributed most to the price decline in food products, with a decrease of 3.6 per cent.
This is the largest price drop for meat and meat products in a single month in the history of PPI, where we have comparable data going back to January 2000.
For the food industry, prices were 7.1 per cent higher in September compared to the same month last year. Price growth in food items has significantly slowed down in recent months, and the twelve-month growth has been around 7-8 per cent for the past three months.
— Price growth in food products is still high from a historical perspective, but it has come down significantly from the exceptionally high levels we saw for most of last year and until the spring of this year, when the twelve-month growth was around 20 per cent, says Espen Kristiansen.
