The producer prices in the manufacturing sector fell by 0.6 percent from June to July.
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This was the third month in a row with price fall in manufacturing. At the same time, prices took a downturn in extraction of crude oil and natural gas, which further pulled the Producer Price Index (PPI) down.
Producer prices fell from June to July, according to data from the Producer Price Index (PPI).
"The prices that Norwegian industry receives for their goods have been relatively stable," says head of division for price statistics at Statistics Norway Espen Kristiansen.
From June 2021 to July 2022, prices of manufactured goods in the PPI increased by over 35 percent.
"Since last summer, industrial prices have experienced some fluctuations, but they have been declining for three consecutive months since April this year," says Espen Kristiansen.
For the metal industry, the price growth picked up towards the end of 2020, as depicted in the figure below. It increased significantly throughout 2021, before reaching a peak in May 2022.
From May 2022 to November 2022, prices experienced a notable decline, before stabilizing somewhat. Subsequently, they decreased by 3.4 percent from June to July this year.
In the figure, we can also observe that the prices of chemical products followed a similar trend to the metal prices in the same period, albeit with slightly more moderate changes. From June to July this year, the prices of chemical products decreased by 3.7 percent.
There were also price declines in fish and petroleum products in the last month.
"Fish, metals, and chemical products are goods that are largely exported, and we can see that in recent months, it's the prices abroad that are causing the overall price development for the industry to decline," says head of division for price statistics at Statistics Norway Espen Kristiansen.
The Norwegian krone has strengthened against the euro over the past couple of months, and against the US dollar (USD) from June to July, which could have contributed to falling export prices. When the krone strengthens, Norwegian exporters receive fewer kroner for the goods they sell in foreign currency. ■