Exports up by over 3 percent in February

© CBS / Nikki van Toorn
As reported by Statistics Netherlands (CBS), the total volume of goods exports grew by
3.3 percent in February year-on-year. Growth was slightly lower than in the previous month (3.9 percent). In February 2020, exports of machinery and petroleum products increased in particular. The volume of imports was 0.9 percent lower than in February 2019. This is the first contraction of goods imports in nearly four years. In February, imports of minerals, petroleum products, metal products and machinery were down in particular.

The CBS Exports Radar indicates that circumstances for exports in April 2020 are less favourable than in  February 2020.

Exports of goods (volume, adjusted for working days)
Year Month%-change (year-on-year %-change)
2016March3.6
2016April5.4
2016May6.3
2016June2.3
2016July2.9
2016August3
2016September5.8
2016October3.3
2016November6.4
2016December5.3
2017January1.7
2017February6.7
2017March8.3
2017April0.7
2017May4.6
2017June10.8
2017July7
2017August7.2
2017September7.8
2017October6.9
2017November7
2017December6.1
2018January4.7
2018February4.6
2018March3.2
2018April6.8
2018May4.6
2018June0.3
2018July2.8
2018August2.7
2018September3.2
2018October3.2
2018November1
2018December0.5
2019January2.2
2019February-0.5
2019March1.1
2019April1.5
2019May-0.3
2019June0.6
2019July0
2019August3.5
2019September1.4
2019October5.6
2019November2.2
2019December4.6
2020January3.9
2020February3.3

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 exports in April are less favourable than in February. This is mainly because producer confidence in Germany and the eurozone was down. Furthermore, the development of the real effective exchange rate was less favourable on an annual basis.

Developments related to the coronavirus outbreak are still barely visible in February’s import and export figures.

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

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