Rapid import growth in the 1st half

We imported NOK 131.0 billion worth of traditional commodities in the first six months of this year. This is an increase of 16.2 percent over the same period last year. Exports of traditional commodities came up to NOK 89.8 billion, an increase of 10.0 percent in relation to the 1st half last year.

The export value of crude oil was fully 23.9 percent lower than in the 1st half of 1997. The low crude oil prices, which were all the way down to NOK 87 per barrel in June, were the main reason for this. The total export value of crude oil and natural gas amounted to NOK 65.3 billion in the period from January to June compared with NOK 81.5 billion in the same period a year ago.

This was one of the reasons why the surplus in the balance of trade in the 1st half was reduced by more than half compared with last year. The surplus in the 1st half came to NOK 24.2 billion, compared with NOK 50.5 billion in the 1st half last year. If we only look at traditional commodities, the trade deficit came to NOK 41.1 billion. In the first six months of last year, this deficit was NOK 10 billion lower.

Big increase in imports of vehicles, metals and machinery

The increase in value of NOK 18.3 billion in imports of traditional commodities for the 1st half was divided among many commodity groups. The growth was especially rapid for vehicles and manufactures of metals, i.e. 19.0 and 53.6 percent respectively. The import values of these two groups increased by NOK 2.1 billion for each. For vehicles the number of imported medium-sized private cars increased from 40,450 to 45,800. More imports of structures for the oil industry lay behind the growth in manufactures of metals. Increased imports of pipes for the oil industry contributed NOK 1.6 billion to the increase in value for iron and steel. Otherwise the import values for various groups of machinery rose from NOK 0.9 to 1.2 billion each. For both electric current and petroleum oils the value of imports was NOK 400 million lower than in the 1st half last year.

Most imports from Sweden and Germany

The imports of traditional commodities from Europe increased by NOK 13.4 billion or 15.5 percent compared with the 1st half of 1997. As usual we import most from Sweden and Germany. Nearly 30 percent of the total imports of traditional commodities came from these countries with goods worth NOK 21.0 billion from Sweden and NOK 18.0 billion from Germany. For Germany the import value of vehicles, iron and steel and various types of machinery rose most. For our neighbour Sweden, the import values rose most for groups of machinery and other transport equipment.

New Statistics

External trade with commodities, June 1998.
The statistics are published monthly in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics and the Monthly Bulletin of External Trade and are available on the Internet: http://www.ssb.no. Detailed figures are available at Customer Services, External Trade, tel. +47 21 09 47 52/53. For more information contact: ų yvind.hagen@ssb.no, tel. +47 21 09 47 26.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 30,-31 1998