Economic picture again less 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 figures published by CBS. This picture will still vary between households, enterprises or regions, however.

Consumers more negative, producers equally negative

Consumers were again more negative in January than they were in December. Producers were equally negative. Consumer and producer confidence were below the long-term average for the past twenty years.

Household consumption, exports and investment up

Household spending was 0.8 percent higher in November 2024 than it was in November 2023, adjusted for price changes and the shopping-day pattern. Households spent more on both services and goods.

In November 2024, the total volume of goods exported (adjusted for the number of working days) was up by 4.2 percent year on year. Export volumes were higher for food, beverages and tobacco, chemical products, machinery and equipment, in particular.

In November 2024, the volume of investment in tangible fixed assets was up by 3.7 percent year on year. This was mainly due to higher investments in other road transport (lorries, trailers, vans, etc.), passenger cars and aircraft. With effect from 1 January 2025, the motor vehicle tax for new vehicles has changed, as have the rules regarding environmental zones in a number of Dutch cities.

Manufacturing output 0.1 percent lower in November

Tcalendar-adjusted output of Dutch manufacturing was 0.1 percent lower in November 2024 than it was in November 2023. This means that manufacturing output has not grown for a total of 17 consecutive months. After adjustment for seasonal and calendar effects, manufacturing output rose by 1.3 percent in November relative to October.

Fewer bankruptcies in December

Adjusted for the number of court session days, there were 27 fewer bankruptcies in December 2024 than in the previous month, a decrease of 8 percent.

House prices up by 11 percent in December

Prices of owner-occupied dwellings (excluding new constructions) were 11.0 percent higher in December 2024 than one year previously, on average. The price increase was smaller than in the four previous months. In December, prices were down by 0.6 percent from November 2024.

Fewer hours worked and fewer vacancies, unemployment unchanged

Unemployment stood at 373 thousand in December 2024, which was 3.7 percent of the labour force, the same percentage as the four previous months.

In Q3 204, employees and self-employed people worked a total of over 3.7 billion hours,0.1 percent less than in the previous quarter after adjustment for seasonal effects.

At the end of Q3 2024, there were 397 thousand vacancies, 5 thousand fewer than in the previous quarter. The number of vacancies has been falling for almost two consecutive years.
In Q3 2024, the turnover of temporary employment and job placement agencies was 2.6 percent higher than in Q3 2023.

Economic growth of 0.8 percent in Q3 2024

According to the second estimate from Statistics Netherlands (CBS), gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 0.8 percent in Q3 2024, relative to the previous quarter. In Q2 the economy grew by 1.1 percent. GDP growth in Q3 was mainly driven by public and household consumption.