Producer price index, 15 July 2001

The decline in the total index can to a great extent be attributed to the world market prices of oil. At the London Spot Markets the price of Brent Blend fell by 12.7 per cent from last month, measured in NOK.

The price development from June to July: Manufacturing prices 1.1 per cent down

The prices in manufacturing fell by 1.1 per cent this month, after last months 0.3 per cent decline. The falling trend is mainly due to reduced prices of refined petroleum products, but falling prices within basic metals also contribute. Here, the prices on the export markets give the strongest pull. At London Metal Exchange important commodities such as aluminium and nickel, and precious metals like gold, silver and platinum all had a price decline from June to July. At London Spot Markets commodities like gasoline, gas oil and heavy fuel oil showed a rather strong decline in prices. The index for refined petroleum products fell 5.4 per cent from last month, while basic metals had a decline of 2.8 per cent.

Prices within manufacturing of food, together with prices of textiles and manufacturing of mineral products, worked as a counterweight to falling prices. The food prices rose by 0.4 per cent, mainly due to increased prices of vegetables and fruits, while the other two rose by 0.8 and 0.5 per cent respectively.

According to the main industrial groupings energy goods had the strongest price decline, falling 11 per cent from June. Consumer goods showed a small increase by 0.3 per cent.

The 12-month rate, July 2000 - July 2001: Prices up 1.2 per cent

The 12-month rate for the prices within manufacturing, mining and quarrying was 1.2 per cent. The food prices had the largest influence, with a rise of 3.9 per cent from July last year. Other major contributors were prices of wood and wood products, manufacturing of mineral products and machines. The prices of refined oil products and basic metals pulled in the opposite direction, with a price decline of 3.3 and 2.8 per cent respectively.

Due to the price fall of oil from June to July the prices within oil and gas extraction were 8.7 per cent lower in July this year than in the same period last year. Even though the prices of electricity fell from last month, the prices have risen by almost 142 per cent the last 12 months.

The development in the 12-month rate

The decline in the prices of manufacturing, mining and quarrying from May to June continued in July. In July the prices were 1.2 per cent higher than at the same time last year, after decreasing from three per cent in May to 2.4 per cent in June. Several groups show a falling price development compared with last year. The most important is refined oil products, where the 12-month rate in May was 10.7 per cent. It was 3.1 per cent in June and fell to a negative 3.3 per cent in July. The prices of basic metals also contributed to the change this time. After increasing from minus 2.5 to 0.1 per cent from May to June, the prices fell again this month, to a negative 2.8 per cent.

The 12-month rate for electricity went from 84 to 141.7 per cent in spite of the price decline from June to July. The reason was that the decline last year was stronger than the decline this year.

The main industrial groupings all had a decline in the 12-month rate. The consumer goods had a slight decrease from 3.9 to 3.6 per cent, while energy goods showed the largest decline, falling from 2.3 per cent in June to minus 7.1 per cent in July.