Small changes in industrial production

When normal seasonal variations were taken into consideration, industrial production increased by 0.3 per cent from October to November. In the period from June to November 1998, industrial production remained roughly unchanged. If weekly corrected statistics for November are compared with statistics for the corresponding month in 1997, they show a drop of 0.4 per cent.

Adjusted for normal seasonal variations, production in the intermediate goods industry and the consumer goods industry was unchanged from October to November. The industries in the former group include pulp, paper and paper products, industrial chemicals and basic metals. Industries that produce capital goods underwent an increase of about one per cent. The trend in the past three months shows moderate growth with only minor changes for intermediate goods and consumer goods. Industries linked to capital goods have undergone a rising trend, strongly influenced by the activities on the Norwegian continental shelf and the activities in the building and construction industry.

Lower building activity

Adjusted for normal seasonal variations, the wood and wood products industry has undergone a clear decline in recent months. Among other things, this is related to the shortage of raw materials and lower demand. The trend is linked to a decline in the construction of new houses and other buildings during 1998. Lower production in the mineral products industry is related to a shutdown for maintenance by important participants in that sector in November. Within the chemical industry, decreasing sales have contributed to decreasing production.

New Statistics
Index of production, November 1998.
The statistics are published monthly in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics. For more information, contact: Oyvind.Naustdal@ssb.no, tel.: +47 21 09 47 35, or Tom.Langer.Andersen@ssb.no, tel.: +47 21 09 47 29.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 2, 1999