Norway’s trade of traditional commodities (all commodities excluding ships and oil platforms, for exports also excluding crude oil, natural gas and condensates) with Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia slipped in the first half of 2003, as compared to the same period last year.
From January to June 2003, the exports to Singapore saw a significant decline of 30.1 per cent to NOK 946.9 million, compared to NOK 1,354.5 million recorded in the same semester a year earlier. The imports from the country during the period decrease 8.9 per cent from NOK 365.5 million last year to NOK 333.1 million this year.
The exports to Thailand also slipped to NOK 284.2 million in the first six month 2003, or 20.1 per cent lower than NOK 355.5 million seen in 2002’s first half. Norway’s semestrial imports from Thailand however grew considerably by 14.4 per cent from NOK 474.6 million in 2002 to NOK 542.7 million this year.
With Malaysia, Norway recorded NOK 185.4 million of exports for the first six months of 2003, a slight decrease of 2.0 per cent year-on-year from NOK 189.2 million. The imports from the country also fell to NOK 614.2 million, or 7.4 per cent lower than NOK 663.5 million posted for the first half of 2002.
Norway’s exports to Indonesia totalled NOK 114.8 million during this year’s first semester, barely changed when compared to NOK 115.0 million in the same semester a year before. The imports from Indonesia meanwhile fell 5.2 per cent, from NOK 342.5 million in 2002 to NOK 324.7 million this year.
Norway’s total exports in June 2003 came to NOK 33.8 billion, which is down 8.8 per cent compared with June 2002. With the monthly imports up to NOK 22.3 billion the trade balance reached a NOK 11.5 billion surplus. For the same month last year the surplus was NOK 15.5 billion.
