Manufacturers slightly less pessimistic

Dutch manufacturers were slightly less pessimistic in July than in June. The producer confidence indicator crept up from -4.1 to -3.5.

Producer confidence consists of three component indicators: manufacturers’ opinions on their order positions, their opinions on their stocks of finished products and the projected output over the next three months. These figures are corrected for seasonal effects among other things. In July, manufacturers were considerably less pessimistic about their order positions than in June. Furthermore, they were slightly less negative about their future output. Opinions on stocks of finished products, on the other hand, deteriorated.

Producer confidence in manufacturing industry

The Dutch manufacturing industry used 77.4 percent of its production capacity in July. The capacity utilisation rate was considerably higher than in April (75.6 percent). In the preceding quarters, the capacity utilisation rate had dropped.

Capacity utilisation rate

More figures can be found in dossier Business cycle.

For more information on economic indicators, the reader is referred to the Economic Monitor.