Exports up by 2 percent in February

More recent figures are available on this topic. View the latest figures here.
© Corné Sparidaens/Hollandse Hoogte
As reported by Statistics Netherlands (CBS), the total volume of goods exports grew by 2.0 percent in February year-on-year. Growth was somewhat lower than in the previous month. Exports of transport equipment (e.g. vessels) and machinery increased in particular. On the other hand, exports of electro-technical equipment were down. The volume of imports was 2.6 percent higher than in February 2018.

Overall growth in both imports and exports is affected negatively by a large company which relocated part of its business activities to another country as of October 2018.

The CBS Exports Radar indicates that circumstances for exports in April are less favourable than in February.

Exports of goods (volume, adjusted for working days)
Year Month%-change (year-on-year %-change)
2015March3.5
2015April5.5
2015May5.8
2015June4.9
2015July5.3
2015August6.6
2015September3.5
2015October5.6
2015November4.4
2015December4.0
2016January4.3
2016February3.5
2016March3.7
2016April5.5
2016May6.4
2016June2.4
2016July2.9
2016August3.0
2016September5.8
2016October3.2
2016November6.2
2016December5.1
2017January1.2
2017February6.3
2017March7.9
2017April0.6
2017May4.6
2017June10.6
2017July7.1
2017August7.2
2017September7.8
2017October7.1
2017November7.0
2017December6.1
2018January4.3
2018February3.8
2018March2.5
2018April6.2
2018May3.9
2018June-0.1
2018July2.5
2018August2.7
2018September1.9
2018October2.0
2018November-0.3
2018December-0.8
2019January2.7
2019February2.0

Conditions for exports in April less favourable than in February

Every month, CBS also publishes updates on the circumstances for exports in the Exports Radar. Conditions are strongly affected by recent developments on the main export markets for Dutch products and by the competitive position of the Netherlands. Although the Radar indicators show a strong correlation with export activity, improved circumstances are not necessarily translated into increased export growth.

According to the CBS Exports Radar, circumstances for Dutch exports in April are less favourable than in February. All confidence indicators were more negative. However, the year-on-year development of the German manufacturing output was less negative and the development of the real effective exchange rates on an annual basis also improved. 
Goods exports account for approximately three-quarters of total exports. As for data on exports of services, these are not published monthly. Data on total exports are published quarterly and annually. Figures published in this news release are provisional and subject to revision.

Sources

Related items