Economic picture slightly less negative in February

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 and producers more negative

Consumers and producers were more negative in February than they were in the previous month. Producer confidence was above the average for the past twenty years, while consumer confidence was below it.

Exports and household consumption up, investment down

In December 2025, the total volume of goods exported (adjusted for the number of working days) was up by 7.1 percent year on year. Export volumes were higher for machinery and petroleum products.

Household spending was 0.8 percent higher in December 2025 than it was in December 2024, adjusted for price changes and the shopping-day pattern. Households spent more on both goods and services.

In December 2025, the volume of investment in tangible fixed assets was down by 2.6 percent year on year. This was mainly due to less investment in other road transport (lorries, trailers, vans, etc.) and aircraft. However, more has been invested in passenger cars, buildings, machinery (including defence equipment) and infrastructure.

Manufacturing output over 1 percent higher in December year on year

In December 2025, the calendar-adjusted output of the Dutch manufacturing sector was 1.3 percent higher than it was in December 2024. After adjusting for seasonal and calendar effects, manufacturing output rose by 0.5 percent relative to November.

More bankruptcies in January

Adjusted for the number of court session days, there were 15 more bankruptcies in January than in December, an increase of 6 percent.

House prices up by over 5 percent in January, year on year

The average price of an owner-occupied home (excluding newbuild homes) was up by 5.4 percent in January 2026, year on year. Prices in January rose by 1.2 percent relative to December.

Fewer hours worked, fewer vacancies, unemployment fairly stable

There were 415 thousand unemployed persons in January 2025. The number of unemployed persons increased by an average of 1,000 per month over the past three months. Just as in the previous four months, 4.0 percent of the labour force aged 15 to 74 years were unemployed.

In Q4 2025, employees and self-employed persons worked over 3.7 billion hours in total. Adjusted for seasonal effects, this was down by 0.3 percent from Q3.

The number of vacancies decreased by 7 thousand to 380 thousand in the fourth quarter of 2025. The number of vacancies has fallen in almost every quarter for three consecutive years.

In Q3 2025, the turnover of temporary employment and job placement agencies was 0.9 percent higher, year on year.

Economic growth of 0.5 percent in Q4 2025

According to the first estimate carried out by Statistics Netherlands (CBS), gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 0.5 percent in Q4 2025 relative to Q3 2025. This growth was mainly attributable to exports and public consumption.