Economic picture deteriorates again

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 less negative, producers more negative

Consumers were slightly less negative in June. Producers were more negative in June than they were in May. Consumer and producer confidence were below the long-term average for the past twenty years.

Household consumption and exports up, investment down

In April 2025, the total volume of goods exported (adjusted for the number of working days) was up by 0.5 percent, year on year. Export volumes were higher for machinery and food, beverages and tobacco, in particular.

Household spending was 0.2 percent higher in April 2025 than it was in April 2024, adjusted for price changes and the shopping-day pattern. Households spent more on services, but less on goods.

In April 2025, the volume of investment in tangible fixed assets was down by 2.3 percent year on year. This was mainly due to less investment in other road transport (vans, etc.), aircraft and buildings.

Manufacturing output 0.5 percent lower in April

In April 2025, the calendar-adjusted output of the Dutch manufacturing sector was 0.5 percent lower than it was in April 2024. After adjustment for seasonal and calendar effects, manufacturing output fell by 1.0 percent in April relative to March.

More bankruptcies in May

Adjusted for the number of court session days, there were 30 more bankruptcies in May than in April. That was an increase of 10 percent.

House prices up by almost 10 percent in May

In May, the average price of an owner-occupied dwelling (excluding newbuild homes) was 9.7 percent higher than one year previously. Prices in May rose by 0.6 percent relative to April.

More number of hours worked, less vacancies, unemployment remained almost unchanged

Unemployment stood at 385 thousand in May 2025. That is 3.8 percent of the labour force, meaning that the unemployment rate was the same as in April. The number of people in unemployment fell slightly, by an average of 2 thousand per month over the past three months.

In Q1 2025, employees and self-employed persons worked a total of over 3.7 billion hours. Adjusted for seasonal effects, this was 0.1 percent more than the previous quarter.

The number of vacancies decreased by nearly 7 thousand to 395 thousand in the first quarter of 2025.

In Q1 2025, the turnover of temporary employment and job placement agencies was 1.5 percent lower than in Q1 2024.

Economic growth of 0.4 percent in Q1 2025

According to the second estimate by Statistics Netherlands (CBS), gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 0.4 percent in Q1 2025, relative to the previous quarter. GDP growth in the first quarter of 2025 was mainly attributable to household consumption and a smaller reduction in inventories.