37999_not-searchable
/en/utenriksokonomi/statistikker/muh/arkiv
37999
Continued reduced trade
statistikk
2009-05-15T10:00:00.000Z
External economy
en
muh, External trade in goods, import, export, balance of trade (export minus import), mainland exports, imports excluding ships and oil platforms, trade ( between countries, continents and trade regions), international product groups (for example hs, sitc and bec), product groups (for example food, crude oil and metals)External trade , External economy
false

External trade in goods, April 2009

Variants of the statistics:

Content

Published:

This is an archived release.

Go to latest release

Continued reduced trade

Goods worth NOK 57.5 billion were exported in April, while imports represented NOK 33.1 billion. Exports of natural gas are again lower than exports of crude oil.

The surplus in trade in goods ended at NOK 24.4 billion, down from NOK 40.5 billion compared to the corresponding month in 2008. The main reason for this is the low export of crude oil. When considering goods that are not ships, oil platforms or from the continental shelf, exports fell by NOK 7.3 billion. Imports excluding ships and oil platforms also fell, by NOK 9.7 billion. Therefore the trade for these goods slightly improves the trade balance.

When comparing figures for April 2009 with the corresponding month in 2008, it is important to consider the fact that the Easter holiday was in March last year and in April this year.

Lower exports of gas

The export value of natural gas amounted to NOK 15.4 billion; a decrease of 8.4 per cent compared to the corresponding month in 2008. Gas in gaseous form, which makes the largest contribution to Norwegian gas exports, experienced a dramatic fall in April this year. Both the price and the quantity are lower than in April 2008. Exports of gas have been higher than for crude oil since November 2008. However, they were lower in April this year.

Slightly higher oil price in April

The average price of a barrel of oil was NOK 337, which is an increase of NOK 17 from the average of the preceding month. Compared to the previous level of the price of crude oil, this growth is not particularly high. On the contrary it represents a substantial decrease of NOK 235 compared to the corresponding month last year. The amount of barrels exported are lower than both March this year and April 2008.

External trade in goods, excl. ships and oil platforms. NOK million
  January-April Change in per cent April Change in per cent
  2008 2009 2008 2009
1 Imports  158 329       137 726 -13,0      42 805       33 101 -22,7
2 Exports  317 585  254 378 -19.9 83 295 57 550 -30.9
Of which            
Crude oil  124 172 68 035 -45.2 34 064 17 477 -48.7
Natural gas 70 065 85 251 21.7 16 833 15 413 -8.4
Condensates 4 051 1 544 -61.9  625  233 -62.7
3 Exports excl. crude oil, natural gas and condensates  119 297 99 548 -16.6 31 773 24 426 -23.1
4 Trade balance (2-1)  159 256  116 652 -26.8 40 489 24 449 -39.6
5 Trade balance excl. oil, natural gas and condensates (3-1) -39 032 -38 178 . -11 033 -8 675 .

Continued low exports of metals

The export value of goods excluding ships, oil platforms, crude oil, condensates and natural gas came to NOK 24.4 billion in April. This is a decline of NOK 7.3 billion compared with the figures from April 2008.

This decline is explained mainly by a drop in exports of manufactured goods of NOK 3.4 billion. Non-ferrous metals in particular fell, with a drop of NOK 2.1 billion. Iron and steel also fell, by NOK 1.2 billion. Exports of petroleum products fell by NOK 1.6 billion.

Lower imports of several goods

Imports of goods in April, excluding ships and oil platforms, came to NOK 33.1 billion, while April last year ended at NOK 42.8 billion.

Imports of machinery and transport equipment showed a decrease of NOK 4.4 billion. The drop is explained by several commodities within this group, however the main reason is road vehicles, which is down by NOK 2.1 billion, ending at NOK 2.7 billion. Furthermore, exports of machinery specialised for particular industries fell by NOK 771 million. The main group of manufactured goods decreased by NOK 1.7 billion in April. Moreover, crude materials (inedible, except fuels) fell by NOK 1.4 billion, where the main reason was a decline in imports of metalliferous ores and metal scrap.

Changes in the external trade statistics for the years 2007 and 2008

As from 10 am on15 May 2009, Statistics Norway’s website ssb.no will be updated with final figures for 2008 and corrected final figures for 2007. There are changes both at http://www.ssb.no/muh/mu2008/ , http://www.ssb.no/muh/mu2007/ and in the StatBank.

The changes in corrected final figures for 2007 are small, but for the year 2008 total exports is NOK 28.8 billion higher in the final figures than the preliminary figures. This upward adjustment is mainly due to a higher level of gas exports of NOK 24.8 billion. The reason for this is an upward revision of the prices in the fourth quarter of 2008. Furthermore the imports for 2008 had an upward revision of NOK 1.7 billion.

New main figures for both 2007 and 2008 are published in tables 1-5 at the web page mentioned.

Tables: