Budding optimism among manufacturers

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The mood among Dutch manufacturers improved further in January. The producer confidence indicator climbed from 0.1 in December to 0.7 in January. After a period of two and a half years in which pessimism prevailed, manufacturers are now cautiously optimistic.

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. Manufacturers were more optimistic  about their future output in January than in December. They were also less negative about their order positions, but more negative about their stocks.

Producer confidence in manufacturing industry

Producer confidence in manufacturing industry

The capacity utilisation rate improved for the third consecutive quarter. Dutch manufacturing industry used 79.6 percent of its production capacity in January 2014, as against 75.6 percent in April last year.

Capacity utilisation rate

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.