Second estimate for first quarter of 2013: economy shrinks by 0.4 percent
According to Statistics Netherlands’ second estimate, Dutch economic growth was -0.4 percent in the first quarter of 2013 compared with the previous quarter. The first estimate, published on 15 May, put growth at -0.1 percent. The economy is thus in a poorer state than previously reported. The quarter-on-quarter change has been adjusted for weekday and seasonal effects.
Compared with the same period last year, the economy shrank by 1.8 percent in the first quarter. This is slightly more than the first estimate of 1.7 percent. On the expenditure side, consumption by households and fixed capital formation have been adjusted downwards. Government consumption was adjusted slightly upwards, however.
On the production side, value added of mineral extraction, trade and transport, and business services were adjusted downwards, while value added in construction, financial institutions, and government were adjusted upwards.
Year figures
Alongside the publication of the second estimate for the first quarter of 2013, the revised annual estimates for 2010 (definite), 2011 (revised provisional) and 2012 (provisional) are published. On the basis of more recently available information, economic growth in these years has been corrected downwards: in 2010 from 1.6 to 1.5 percent, in 2011 from 1.0 to 0.9 percent and in 2012 from -1.0 to -1.2 percent. The quarterly figures for these years have also been adjusted.
Large drop in job numbers
After adjustment for seasonal effects, the number of employee jobs in the Netherlands was 51 thousand lower in the first quarter of 2013 than in the previous quarter. According to the first estimate the fall was 34 thousand. Compared with twelve months previously, the fall was 121 thousand jobs. In the first estimate this was 99 thousand. More jobs than previously estimated were lost in business services and in trade and transport in particular. Wages per labour year were 2.0 percent higher than in the first quarter last year.