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Preliminary figures show a current account surplus of NOK 35.6 billion for the period January to June 1997. For the same period in 1996 the surplus was NOK 37.1 billion. Part of the reason for the weaker result in 1997 is the higher deficit in net interest and transfers. In June 1997 the current account surplus was NOK 4.5 billion, NOK 0.7 billion less than in the same month the year before.
Net goods and services in the first half of 1997 totalled NOK 47.3 billion, NOK 0.6 billion more than in the first half of 1996. The trade balance improved by NOK 3.9 billion, while the services balance surplus dropped by NOK 3.4 billion. The weakening of the services balance is mainly due to higher operating costs for the merchant shipping fleet and higher imports of financial and business services.
The deficit in net interest and transfers came to NOK 11.7 billion from January to June 1997, while the deficit for the comparative period the year before was NOK 9.6 billion. Income increased by a total of NOK 2.5 billion, to NOK 22.9 billion in the first half of 1997. Expenditures rose, however, by NOK 4.6 billion to NOK 34.6 billion, of which interest expenses accounted for NOK 3.1 billion of the increase.
Revaluation of foreign assets and liabilities, mainly as a result of exchange rate fluctuations, yielded in the first half of 1997 a net loss of NOK 13.1 billion for Norway. Norway's net foreign assets consequently increased by NOK 22.2 billion during the same period and were estimated at the end of June 1997 at NOK 94.2 billion.
Weekly Bulletin issue no. 35, 1997