The economic picture in the Netherlands was slightly more negative in November, compared to October, according to the latest CBS Business Cycle Clock from Statistics Netherlands.
According to the data, 11 out of 13 key economic indicators performed worse in November than their long-term trends, however trends varied somewhat across different sectors and regions.
Increased pessimism
As Statistics Netherlands noted, November 2024 saw an increase in pessimism among consumers, while producer sentiment was slightly less negative. Both consumer and producer confidence levels remain below their 20-year average, however.
The data also showed that household consumption increased by 2.6% in September 2024 compared to the same month the previous year, driven by higher spending on both goods and services.
Similarly, exports were up by 3.0% in volume, with increases recorded in chemical products, food, luxury goods, and electrotechnical machinery. Investment in tangible fixed assets also rose, by 0.4%, particularly in transport equipment and computers.
Industrial production, bankruptcies and housing
However, industrial production found the going tougher, with a 3.3% decline in September 2024 compared to the same month in 2023.
On a monthly basis, industrial production fell by 3.0% from August to September 2024.
The number of bankruptcies in October 2024 decreased by 1.1% compared to the previous month. Elsewhere, housing prices saw an uptick, with a year-on-year increase of 11.5% in October 2024 – the largest rise in more than two years.
Labour market
Lastly, in the labour market, the number of hours worked by Dutch employees declined slightly by 0.2% in the third quarter of 2024 compared to the previous quarter.
Unemployment remained stable at 376,000 people, representing 3.7% of the working population.
‘According to the first calculation by Statistics Netherlands (CBS), gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 0.8 percent in the third quarter of 2024 compared to the second quarter of 2024,’ Statistics Netherlands said. ‘In the second quarter, growth was 1.1 percent . The increase in GDP in the third quarter is mainly due to consumption by households and government.’ Read more here.
