228940_not-searchable
/en/utenriksokonomi/statistikker/ur/kvartal
228940
High balance of income and current transfers
statistikk
2015-09-02T10:00:00.000Z
External economy;National accounts and business cycles;External economy
en
ur, International accounts, current account balance, direct investments, operational and capital accounts, financial accounts, investment abroad, foreign investment, transactions, stocks, financial assets, liabilities, portofolio investment, financial investments, revaluations, current account balance, balance of income and current transfers, reinvested earnings, net assets, BOP geographical breakdown, balance of goods, balance of services, BOP, IIP, balance of payments, international investment positionBalance of payments, National accounts , Foreign assets and liabilities , National accounts and business cycles, External economy
false
The statistics show the quarterly Norwegian current account balance.

International accounts, Q2 2015

Content

Published:

This is an archived release.

Go to latest release

High balance of income and current transfers

Preliminary figures show a balance of income and current transfers surplus of NOK 34 billion for the 2nd quarter of 2015. The total current account balance was NOK 72 billion; slightly higher than that of the 1st quarter of 2015.

Balance of payments. NOK millionPublished 2 September 2015
2nd quarter 20143rd quarter 20144th quarter 20141st quarter 20152nd quarter 2015
Current account balance61 64246 87883 27769 36171 918
Balance of goods and services60 19836 48579 87752 10838 364
Balance of income and current transfers1 44410 3933 40017 25333 554
Capital transfers to abroad, net2573990719122
Net lending, current account61 38346 83983 18768 63071 796
 
Direct investment-22 954-12 05363 49714 7222 863
Portofolio investment85 94121 0671 626-23 621152 812
Other investments61 2721 32954 6936 636-120 712
Reserve assets (IMF breakdown)4 52125 922-15 18517 995-5 526
Net lending, financial account128 78036 265104 63115 73229 437
 
Net errors and omissions-67 39710 574-21 44452 89842 359

Source: Statistics Norway

Figure 1. The current account

Low level of balance of goods and services

The export value of crude oil and natural gas decreased markedly from the 1st to 2nd quarter, to quite a low level. This caused a reduction in the total value of exports of goods and services. The value of imports, on the other hand, saw modest growth. For more information about exports and imports, including price and volume considerations and seasonal adjustments, please see the quarterly national accounts (http://www.ssb.no/knr).

Extraordinary high balance of income and current transfers

The balance of income and current transfers moved in the opposite direction from the balance of goods and services. The balance of income and current transfers has been rising over recent years, and in the two first quarters of 2015 the balance was very high. In particular, the large investments abroad through the Government Pension Fund have given high dividends. A weaker NOK gives even higher values measured in NOK. The dividends going to abroad have not had the same growth.

Financial account transactions

Total financial asset transactions amounted to NOK 82 billion in the 2nd quarter of 2015. NOK 12 billion is accounted for under direct investments. Portfolio investments were NOK 86 billion and other financial transactions were NOK -10 billion. Norwegian banks had a large increase in loans to non-residents during the second quarter, while their deposits were considerably reduced.

Total financial liability transactions amounted to NOK 53 billion. Direct investment amounted to NOK 9 billion. Portfolio investments were negative this quarter, with the transactions falling to NOK -66 billion. Transactions in other financial investments were considerable this quarter, and amounted to NOK 110 billion.

RevisionsOpen and readClose

Exports and imports are revised only for the 1st quarter in 2015. Balance of income and current transfers are also revised for the same period as new information has become available. Total export is not revised much since last time the BoP was published in June 2015. A downward adjustment of the export of services was compensated by a reverse adjustment of the export of goods. Revisions on the import are due to new information on imports of services. Total imports have been revised up NOK 4 billion since June.

For the financial account, revisions have been made back to the 1st quarter of 2014.

Due to new deposit codes reported for the sector deposit-taking corporations, there has been a revision of short-term and long-term deposits. Data are revised dating back to 1st quarter of 2014.

Changes in tableOpen and readClose

A minor adjustment has been made on the current and capital account table where some of the content of the post “Export of gross receipts, shipping” has been moved to the post “Export of transport and communication”. The item that has been moved is “Export of supply services to shipping”. This modification has been made for all years dating back to 1981.