Prices within extraction of oil and natural gas went up by 2.1 percent from March to April. The oil price increased, while the gas price went in the opposite direction. At the very beginning of April, several countries within the oil cartel OPEC + is a group of 23 oil-exporting countries which meets regularly to decide how much crude oil to sell on the world market. At the core of this group are the 13 members of OPEC (the Organization of the Oil Exporting Countries), which are mainly Middle Eastern and African countries. announced a reduction in the oil production (OPEC.org). This announcement may have affected the oil price in April.
– The gas price fell for the fourth month in a row and is nearly halved compared to April last year, says chief of division for price statistics, Espen Kristiansen.
Third successive month with higher manufacturing prices
Prices within manufacturing rose for the third month in a row, up 0.1 percent in April. Compared to April last year, prices have increased by closely 7,0 percent.
Prices within the food industry went up 0.6 percent in April and up 19.3 percent compared to April 2022. Prices within the food industry have increased continuously since September last year. In April prices rose within several product groups, but the biggest contributors came from the seafood industry as well as from meat and meat preparations, with increases of 0.7 and 0.6 percent respectively.
Prices Norwegian seafood producers obtained in the Norwegian market fell in April, while the export prices went up 2.2 percent.
– Export prices within the seafood industry have increased for the fifth month in a row and have never been higher, says Kristiansen.
Several other industries had a price decrease in April and they contributed to dampen the overall price increase in the PPI. One of these industries was refined petroleum products, with a price drop of 1.6 percent.
Prices also fell within basic metals, after four months with increasing prices. The price drop in April mainly came from non-ferrous metals.
Small decrease within electricity, gas and steam
Prices within In Norway, production and distribution of electricity are the principal parts of this group. fell by 1.0 percent in April. Prices fell mainly due to a reduction in the spot price measured at Nord Pool. According to the weekly reports from NVE (nve.no), the power market was divided in April. In the first half of April there were falling temperatures in large parts of the Nordic region, in addition to lower wind power production in Germany and England. These conditions contributed to increased power prices in Norway. However, the latter half of the month was characterized by mild weather and low consumption, which helped to push power prices downwards.
