Producer confidence further down

The mood among Dutch manufacturers deteriorated in August. The producer confidence indicator dropped from -2.2 in July to -3.3 in August. August was the fifth month in a row, in which producer confidence diminished.

Producer confidence consists of three component indicators: manufacturers’ opinions on their order positions, the expected output over the next three months and manufacturers’ opinions on their order stocks of finished products.

The drop in producer confidence in August can be attributed entirely to manufacturers’ opinions on order positions, which deteriorated considerably. Opinions on stocks of finished products improved marginally. Expectations on future output hardly changed.

Just as in July, manufacturers were pessimistic about future employment in their branch. The number of manufacturers expecting employment to decrease was larger than the number of manufacturers anticipating an increase.

Manufacturers reported that the value of orders received was reduced over the past three months. The order position index (orders expressed in month of work) was the same in August (103.6) as in July.

Producer confidence in manufacturing industry

More figures can be found in dossier Business cycle.