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

Consumers equally negative, producers less negative

Consumers remained equally negative in September as in the two previous months. Producers were less negative than they were in August. Consumer and producer confidence were below the long-term average for the past twenty years.

Household consumption and exports up, investment down

Household spending was 1.3 percent higher in July 2025 than it was in July 2024, adjusted for price changes and the shopping-day pattern. Households spent more on goods and services.

In July 2025, the total volume of goods exported (adjusted for the number of working days) was up by 2.4 percent year on year. Growth is slightly lower than a month earlier. Export volumes were higher for crude oil and natural gas, machinery and basic metals and metal products.

In July 2025, the volume of investment in tangible fixed assets was down by 3.9 percent, year on year (CBS). This was mainly due to less investment in buildings and other road transport (lorries, trailers, vans, etc.).

Manufacturing output 1.1 percent lower in July

In July 2025, the calendar-adjusted output of the Dutch manufacturing sector was 1.1 percent lower than it was in July 2024. After adjustment for seasonal and calendar effects, manufacturing output fell by 1.4 percent relative to June.

Fewer bankruptcies in August

Adjusted for the number of court session days, there were 21 fewer bankruptcies in August than in July. That was a decrease of 7 percent.

House prices up by almost 8 percent in August

In August, the average price of an owner-occupied dwelling (excluding newbuild homes) was 7.9 percent higher year on year and 0.5 percent higher relative to July.

Fewer hours worked, fewer vacancies, unemployment up

There were 401 thousand people unemployed in August 2025. This means that 3.9 percent of the labour force (aged 15 to 74 years) were unemployed. In July, this was 3.8 percent. The number of unemployed persons has risen by an average of 5 thousand per month over the past three months.

In Q2 2025, employees and self-employed persons worked over 3.7 billion hours in total. Adjusted for seasonal effects, that was 0.3 percent less than the previous quarter.
The number of vacancies decreased by around 7 thousand to nearly 389 thousand in the second quarter of 2025.

In Q2 2025, the turnover of temporary employment and job placement agencies was 0.3 percent lower than in Q2 2024.

Economic growth of 0.2 percent in Q2 2025

According to the second estimate conducted by Statistics Netherlands (CBS), gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 0.2 percent in Q2 2025 relative to Q1 2025. This growth was mainly attributable to investment. Public consumption and household consumption also made a positive contribution.