Commodity price index for the industrial sector (discontinued), 15 April 2002

Prices within oil and gas extraction have increased about 25 per cent this year. Even though crude oil prices (Brent Blend) has increased roughly 30 per cent since December, prices are still 6.5 per cent lower that last April and 1.3 per cent lower than last year's average. This is due to the magnitude of the drop in oil prices last half of 2001.

Manufacturing has shown a 1.8 per cent increase compared with December. Large fluctuations in prices of crude oil and oil manufactures have lately had a large influence on the development in manufacturing prices. Compared with last December, prices of refined petroleum products have increased 14 per cent. The figure shows the mentioned developments and visualizes the oil price's impact on the total index and manufacturing.

March 2002 to April 2002; Manufacturing prices up 0.5 per cent

With a 5 per cent rise, increased prices of refined petroleum continue to be the main contributor to the rise in manufacturing prices. After showing a decline the two previous months, prices of food went up 0.5 per cent in April. Prices of pulp, paper and paper products continue to decline and went down 1.8 per cent compared with last month. The largest downward effect came from a 1.1 per cent reduction in prices of basic metals.