External trade in goods, April 2001

Traditional goods amounted to 16.7 billion in April. With imports of 22.3 billion, the trade surplus was slightly above 20 billion kroner.

The export value of crude oil and natural gas in April was 24.6 per cent higher than the relatively low value for the same month last year. Seasonally adjusted petroleum exports in April this year were 4.6 per cent higher than in March, against a background of a downturn of the same magnitude during February and March. Due to the increases in petroleum prices through 1999 and the first part of 2000 the value of petroleum exports has soared to a level of 180 per cent more than in the same period in 1999.

Exports and imports of traditional goods: More trade with the EU

Adjusted for seasonality, the value of external trade in goods shows a decrease in exports of 3.5 per cent, in the wake of a decrease of just under 2 per cent from February to March.

Exports of traditional goods so far this year amounted to 74.5 billion kroner - an increase of 10 per cent compared with the same period in 2000. Exports to the EU - about 52 billion - have increased by 9.6 per cent. There is also an increase to Asia of 20 per cent to 7 billion kroner. In terms of value, Japan is the most important Asian market for Norwegian exports. There has been a decline of 6 per cent to the Americas - especially to the US.

Imports in April came to 22.3 billion kroner - an increase of 4.6 per cent compared with the same period last year. So far this year imports amount to 94.5 billion kroner, which is 9 per cent higher than imports of the same period in 2000. The seasonally adjusted figures indicate that imports have slowed down, having decreased by 1.8 per cent from March to April.

Imports from the EU countries amounted to 64 billion kroner which means an increase of 11 per cent compared with the first four months last year. There have been relatively high increases from Germany and the UK.

Trade balances

The trade balance excluding ships and oil platforms show a surplus of 20 billion kroner for April this year, compared with 15 billion for April 2000.

Excluding crude oil, natural gas and natural gas condensates the trade deficit for April amounted to 5.7 billion kroner.

The figures are exclusive of ships and mobile oil platforms, the same as for traditional goods on the import side. For exports, traditional goods are also exclusive of crude oil and natural gas and as of January 2001 also exclusive of natural gas condensates.

Tables:

• Table 1 Imports of traditional commodities in April and Janury-April. 2000 and 2001. Preliminary figures. Million NOK
• Table 2 Exports of commodities, ships and oil platforms excluded, in April and January-April 2000 and 2001. Preliminary figures. Million kroner
• Table 3 Trade with countries and regional groups of countries. Traditional commodities. January-April. 2000 and 2001. Preliminary figures. Million NOK.