High investment in 1998 and 1999

Investment activity in manufacturing, mining, quarrying and electricity and gas supply is at a high level. Investment estimates for this year reported in the third quarter are now nearly NOK 22 billion, the highest so far this decade. Investment estimates for 1999 were revised upwards in the third quarter by nine per cent compared to the previous quarter.

The 1998 investment estimates for mining, quarrying, manufacturing and electricity and gas supply show a four per cent increase compared to the estimate for 1998 recorded in the second quarter of this year. In absolute figures, the increase in the estimates came to NOK 882 million divided as follows: manufacturing, NOK 534 million, up three per cent; and electricity and gas supply, NOK 363 million, up eight per cent.

At the industry level in manufacturing, the food, beverages and tobacco industry (+NOK 215 million), wood processing (+NOK 144 million) and transport equipment industry (+NOK 143 million) were the main factors in pushing up the estimates, while oil refining and the chemical industry accounted for the biggest offset, with a NOK 92 million decline in estimated investment.

In the last quarter, electricity and gas supply contributed to a negative trend in the 1998 estimates due to delays of major projects in the industry. The delays were incorporated in the figures for the previous quarter, and this quarter electricity and gas supply once again shows a sharp increase in the investment estimates. It is assumed that investment will take place primarily on the building and construction side. The investment estimate for electricity and gas supply this year is NOK 5 billion, up eight percent, or NOK 363 million from the previous quarter.

New Statistics
Investment statistics. Manufacturing, mining and quarrying, electricity and gas supply, 3rd quarter 1998.
Statistics are published every quarter in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics. For more information, contact: benn.tarjesen@ssb.no, tel. +47 21 09 47 20, or kjell.berger@ssb.no, tel. +47 21 09 47 19.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 37, 1998