Small changes in industrial production

Seasonally adjusted production in oil and gas extraction, manufacturing, mining and quarrying and electricity supply (the overall index) fell 0.6 per cent from January to February 1999. The main reason for the change is lower oil and gas production. Industrial production rose 0.2 per cent during the same period.

Industrial production from 1996 to 1997 was on the upswing, driven in part by the high level of activity in the offshore sector. It stabilized somewhat in 1998 and into 1999. Measured in weekly corrected figures, industrial production was 0.1 per cent lower in February 1999 than during the same month in 1998. The seasonally adjusted figures for December 1998 to February 1999 show that there has been a decline of 0.8 per cent compared with the three previous months.

Slowdown in the platform industry
Production in industries associated with the construction and fitting of oil platforms saw a seasonally adjusted decline of 1.7 per cent from January to February 1999. The decline is connected to a weaker order situation for central players in the industry. The players also report that the trend will expectedly reduce production even more in coming months.

High activity in machinery industry
The high investment activity on the mainland, in the North Sea and improved export markets also affected developments in the machinery industry, a traditional engineering industry. The industry boasted a weekly corrected increase of about five percent from February 1998 to February this year. The most recent figures show a seasonally adjusted increase of one per cent from January to February this year.

Lower oil and gas production
The production of oil and gas was lower in February than in January, and was also lower than one year ago. The decline in seasonally adjusted figures was 2.5 per cent. Overall oil and gas extraction was about four per cent lower than during the same month last year.

New Statistics
Index of production, February 1999.
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. 15, 1999