External trade in services, Q1 2013

Non-financial enterprises, excluding the shipping industry, exported services for NOK 28 billion in the 1st quarter of 2013. This was a decrease of 3.4 per cent compared to the same period in 2012.

The import of services amounted to NOK 34 billion and increased by 2.6 per cent from the 1st quarter of 2012, which was an increase of NOK 1 billion.

Increase in services related to oil and gas

Services related to the oil and gas industry were the largest group of imported services in the 1st quarter of 2013, and accounted for 24.5 per cent of the total. This was a decrease in value of NOK 1 billion compared to the 1st quarter of 2012.Business services ended at NOK 7 billion, which accounted for 20 per cent of the total imports of services to date in 2013. Wholesale trade and intermediate trade doubled the import in the 1st quarter of 2013 compared to the same quarter in the previous year, and came to NOK 2 billion compared to NOK 1 billion in the 1st quarter of 2012.

The Norwegian export of services was dominated by business services, which reached a value of NOK 9.5 billion, and was responsible for 34.6 per cent of service exports. Services related to oil and gas exploration accounted for 15.8 per cent of the total export value, and reached NOK 4 billion. Contract work and repairs had a decrease of 25.2 per cent in the 1st quarter of 2013 compared to the same quarter in the previous year, which totalled NOK 1 billion.

Mining and quarrying industry largest in import of services

The mining and quarrying industry dominated service imports in the first three months of 2013, with NOK 11 billion, which represented an entire 32.6 per cent share of the import value. This was a decrease of the industry’s share of total service imports, down 12.8 percentage points from the 1st quarter of 2012. Wholesale and retail trade amounted to NOK 4 billion in the 1st quarter of 2013, an increase of 46.8 per cent compared to the same quarter in the previous year.

Enterprises within the business service sector accounted for the largest export of services, with about one third of the export value. The mining and quarrying industry was also a large contributor with a share of 15.7 per cent of total service export in the 1st quarter of 2013, which amounted to NOK 4 billion. The manufacturing industry had a decrease of 27.9 per cent compared to the 1st quarter of 2012, which amounted to nearly NOK 2 billion.

Most service trade with Europe

A total of 43.7 per cent of Norwegian imports of services came from EU countries other than the Nordic countries, reaching a value of NOK 15 billion. Nordic countries accounted for 28.6 per cent of the service imports, equivalent to NOK 10 billion.

For Norwegian non-financial enterprises, excluding the shipping industry, European countries accounted for 57 per cent of total exports in the 1st quarter of 2013. The export of services to other EU countries and Nordic countries amounted to NOK 9 billion and NOK 5 billion respectively in the 1st quarter of 2013.