Foreign trade surplus

Norway's foreign trade balance for January 1999 shows a surplus of NOK 4.9 billion. This is the largest surplus registered in the last 10 months. At the same time, imports fell 12.3 per cent in January compared with January last year. Exports fell by 11.4 per cent.

The value of crude oil exports fell from NOK 10.5 billion in January 1998 to NOK 6.3 billion in January this year. On the other hand, the export value of natural gas rose from NOK 2.5 to 2.9 billion during the same period. Total exports came to NOK 23.9 billion. Exports of traditional goods amounted to NOK 13.8 billion. This is 11.4 per cent lower than in January last year. Imports fell by NOK 2.5 billion from NOK 20.7 billion in the first month of last year to NOK 18.2 billion in January this year.

Lower crude oil prices

If January 1998 is compared with January this year, the foreign trade surplus fell from NOK 7.8 to 4.9 billion. This is primarily due to the lower export value of crude oil from the Norwegian continental shelf. January exports of crude oil amounted to NOK 6.3 billion, while it was NOK 10.5 billion in 1998 and NOK 12.7 billion in 1997. The quantities exported have remained fairly constant. For 1998 the average was about 2.70 million barrels per day. The preliminary price for January 1999 is NOK 83 per barrel. This is up from December 1998 but below the average of NOK 94 per barrel for the whole of 1998.

Import of oil platform modules

The January 1998 import figures include oil platform modules valued at NOK 851 million. This type of commodity made up only NOK 48 million of the January imports this year, and explains part of the NOK 2.5 billion decrease in imports. Car imports also fell in January, with imports totalling NOK 1,256 million this year compared with NOK 1,679 million in January last year.

New Statistics
External trade with commodities, January 1999.
The statistics are published monthly in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics and the Monthly Bulletin of External Trade and are also available on the Internet at http://www.ssb.no. Detailed figures are available from Customer Services, External Trade, tel. +47 21 09 47 52/53. For more information contact: Hans.Kristian.Ostereng@ssb.no, tel. +47 21 09 47 13.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 7, 1999