Reduced trade surplus

Norway exported NOK 265 billion worth of goods in 1998. This is an increase of 11.8 per cent from 1997. Exports of goods in 1998 amounted to NOK 298 billion, a decrease of 10.5 per cent. The trade surplus was consequently reduced from NOK 96 billion in 1997 to NOK 33 billion in 1998.

By comparison, imports increased by nine per cent in both 1995 and 1996, and by seven per cent in 1997, measured by current value. For the last three months of the year, however, the seasonally adjusted figures show a decline in imports compared with the previous three-month period.

The decline in exports is tied to the lower value of crude oil and natural gas exports. The decrease for crude oil was 31.5 per cent and was 2.3 per cent for natural gas. Exports of traditional goods in 1998 totalled NOK 178 billion, up 5.1 per cent from the year before. Consequently, there was a small increase in the trade deficit for traditional goods, from NOK 7.5 billion in 1997 to NOK 7.8 billion in 1998.

Higher imports of machinery

Machinery in particular pushed up the value of imports in 1998. Machinery accounted for 28 per cent of total imports of goods in 1998, and the import value of machinery was 17 per cent higher than in 1997. There was a considerable increase for all groups of machinery, from 11 per cent for electrical machinery to 25 per cent for general manufacturing machinery.

New Statistics
External trade with commodities, December 1998
The statistics are published every month in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics and Monthly Bulletin of External Trade and are available on the Internet. Detailed figures are available from Customer Services, External Trade, tel. +47 21 09 47 52/53. For more information contact: Lars.Andreas.Lunde@ssb.no, tel. +47 21 09 47 13.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 3, 1999