The oil saves the trade balance

In December, the export of goods amounted to NOK 81.2 billion, while the imports came to about NOK 40 billion. The trade surplus for the month was thus NOK 41.2 billion.

Neither the exports nor the trade surplus have been this large since 2008, Statistics Norway reports.

However, if oil and gas exports were excluded, the trade balance for 2011 would have been NOK 132 billion in the negative.

The trade surplus for December was 10.8 per cent larger than the corresponding month in 2010. The export values of natural gas, crude oil and mainland exports increased. While the imports declined by 8.8 per cent from November 2011, they increased by 2 per cent from NOK 39.3 billion compared to December 2010. This offsets part of the increase in the trade surplus from a year ago.

Crude oil exports came to NOK 30.1 billion in December. This was an increase of 6.7 per cent from a year ago. The per barrel mean price has remained above NOK 600 since February and was NOK 655 in December. This was almost NOK 100 higher than a year earlier. The high price counteracted the decrease in export quantity and led to an increase in the value of the crude oil exports. Forty-six million barrels were exported in December compared to 50.5 million barrels a year earlier.

The exports of natural gas amounted to NOK 21.4 billion in December, equalling an increase of 8.1 per cent compared to December 2010, and 2.5 per cent compared to the previous month.

Compared to December 2010, the decline in exported volume amounted to 618 million cubic metres for natural gas in a gaseous state.

(NRK/Press release)

Tuesday, 17 January 2012 08:06