Economic picture remains equally negative

The CBS Business Cycle Tracer is a tool used to monitor the state of the Dutch economy. It provides an overall macroeconomic picture of the past month or quarter, based on all the figures published by CBS. This picture will still vary between households, enterprises or regions, however.

Consumers and producers more negative

Dutch consumers and producers were slightly more negative in July 2024 than in the previous month. Consumer and producer confidence were below the long-term average for the past two decades.

Household consumption up, exports and investment down

Households spent 0.2 percent more in May 2024 year on year, adjusted for price changes and shopping-day pattern. They spent more on services and durable goods such as clothing, in particular.

In May 2024, the total volume of goods exported (adjusted for the number of working days) was down by 4.3 percent year on year. Export volumes were lower for machinery, natural gas, petroleum products and transport equipment, in particular.

In May 2024, the investment volume for tangible fixed assets was down by 6.8 percent year on year. This was mainly due to lower investment in buildings, aircraft, passenger cars and machinery (including defence equipment).

Manufacturing output down by 3 percent in May

In May 2024, the calendar-adjusted output of the Dutch manufacturing industry was 3.0 percent lower than it was in May 2023. After adjusting for seasonal and calendar effects, manufacturing output fell by 0.4 percent in May relative to April.

More bankruptcies in June

Adjusted for the number of court session days, there were 37 more bankruptcies in June 2024 than in May. That was an increase of 11 percent. In the first half of 2024, 40 percent more businesses were declared bankrupt than one year previously.

House prices up by almost 10 percent in June

In June 2024, existing owner-occupied dwellings were 9.7 percent more expensive, on average, than one year previously. That is the largest increase in almost 2 years. Prices were 1.3 percent higher in June than they were in May.

More hours worked, more vacancies and unemployment unchanged

In Q1 2023, the number of hours worked rose by 0.3 percent on the previous quarter after adjustment for seasonal effects. Employees and self-employed people worked a total of over 3.7 billion hours in Q1 2024.

In June 2024, 370 thousand people aged 15 to 74 years were unemployed. This represents 3.6 percent of the labour force, the same percentage as in May. Over the past three months, the number of unemployed persons has hardly changed. The number of employed people has risen over this period, by an average of 5 thousand per month.

After six quarters of decline, the number of vacancies increased slightly in Q1 2024. At the end of Q1, there were 411 thousand vacancies, almost 1 thousand more than at the end of December.

In Q1 2024, the turnover of temporary employment and job placement agencies was 2.9 percent higher year-on-year.

Economic contraction of 0.5 percent in Q1 2024

According to the second estimate conducted by Statistics Netherlands (CBS), gross domestic product (GDP) decreased by 0.5 percent in Q1 2024 relative to Q4 2023. The contraction in Q1 was mainly due to goods exports. The decline in goods exports is related to the contraction in the manufacturing sector.