Helsinki, 18 February 2014

The trade surplus of Norway peaked in January, to 48.8 billion NOK (5.9 billion EUR), up 41.8% year on year, according to official figures released Tuesday. The increase was due to a net increase in this period of oil exports (+38.0%) doped with volumes and rising prices, said the National Statistics Institute (SSB).

The foreign sales of traditional goods – excluding hydrocarbons–also show a strong increase of 10.1%, driven in particular by the fresh salmon and manufactured goods.

Globally, exports were up16.5% compared to January 2013, while imports fell by 3.8%. Excluding oil, the Norwegian trade balance shows a deficit of 7.2 billion NOK in January.

Export grew 16.5% year-on-year to 90.2 billion NOK (10.8 billion EUR), driven by high exports of oil and gas combined with a leap in the export of mainland goods. Imports ended at 41.4 billion NOK (4.9 billion EUR) – down 3.8%.

The increase in oil export is caused by both higher prices and higher volume. Norway exported 43.4 million barrels of crude oil in January 2014. This means 30% more than a year ago. The price has gone up from 632 NOK (74.6 EUR) per barrel in January 2013 to 671 NOK (80.4 EUR) in 2014. To a large degree, this increase is caused by the weakening of the Norwegian Krone, Statistics Norway reports.

New record in export from mainland

Norwegian export of mainland goods (oil and gas excluded) rose more than ten percent from 2013 and reached a record of 33.9 billion NOK (4.0 billion EUR) in January. Export of vessels and drillings rigs increased 297 percent. Import of these commodities sank 73% at the same time.

Fish exports also grew significantly, up 24.2% to 5.8 billion NOK (695.1 million EUR) in January. The climb is mainly a result of higher export value of fresh salmon, which rose from 846 million NOK (101.4 million EUR) to 3 billion NOK (359.5 million EUR). The increased value of salmon exports is due to the higher price of salmon. The price of a kilo of salmon rose 40% in a year.

Finnmark on top three

Norway’s northernmost county Finnmark exported mainland goods for 643  million NOK (77 million EUR) in January 2014. This is up 39.5% from the same month in 2013. Only two other counties in Norway had a higher export growth than Finnmark, newspaper Finnmarken writes.

Fisheries and mineral extraction are the most important mainland industries contributing to rapid growth in exports from Finnmark./RLU

Source: SSB, Barents Observer