OSLO, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Norway's oil industry contributes today with only 6.5 percent of total tax income, a significant drop from the level of 2008, when the share reached 31.7 percent, newspaper Aftenposten reported Saturday.
Recent numbers from Statistics Norway have shown that the total Norway state income in the first four months this year was 273 billion kroner (around 32.5 billion U.S. dollars), which is 1.2 percent more than in the same period last year.
However the share coming from oil industry has been decreased. There have been 4.7 billion kroner less oil tax income than in 2016, Aftenposten reported.
According to Klaus Mohn, professor of petroleum economics at the University of Stavanger, somewhat detailed insight into recent statistics shows less important role that oil and gas industry has for Norway economy.
"Oil industry is in any case less important now than then," Mohn told Aftensposten.
In recent years, oil industry contributed with more than 20 percent of the total Norway state income, more than three times of this year's share.
That, however, does not necessarily mean a big shift in Norwegian industry, Mohn said.
"We should expect the change in development again, as oil and gas companies have cut expenses and oil price stopped falling," he said.
According to the professor, tax income from oil industry should rise again, since increasingly more companies are earning more.
