Current account deficit in 2nd quarter

Preliminary figures show a current account deficit of NOK 0.3 billion for second quarter 1998. This is NOK 11.6 billion less than in second quarter 1997. The reduction is attributed to the reduction of the goods and services balance by NOK 13.1 billion to NOK 3.2 billion.

Preliminary figures show a current account deficit of NOK 0.3 billion in the second quarter, while there was a current account surplus of NOK 8.2 billion in the first quarter. The surplus for the first half of this year was therefore NOK 7.9 billion, NOK 24.8 billion lower than in the first half of 1997.

The export value went down NOK 6.9 billion from the first six months of last year to the first six months of this year. The marked decline in the price of oil caused a NOK 16.2 billion drop in the export value of oil and gas during the same period. The export value of traditional goods increased by NOK 7 billion, while exports of services rose by NOK 2.6 billion. The value of gross freight revenues earned by the international shipping fleet, which accounts for half of the services items, increased 10.8 per cent in the first quarter of this year, but dropped 5.9 per cent in the second quarter. The strong dollar did not compensate for reduced dollar-denominated freight rates, and in Norwegian kroner freight rates dropped 2.4 per cent from the second quarter last year to the second quarter of this year. Other service items such as communications services and finance and business services increased in value from the first half of last year to the first half of this year.

New Statistics
Balance of payments, June 1998.
Statistics are published every month in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics. For more information, contact: elisabeth.norgaard@ssb.no, tel. +47 21 09 49 25, or bjornar.ansnes@ssb.no, tel. +47 21 09 48 35.

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Weekly Bulletin issue no. 36, 1998