Labour productivity in the Dutch economy up by 2.4 percent in 2025

• Dutch economy forecast to grow by 1.8 percent in 2025. 
• Labour productivity was 2.4 percent higher than in 2024. 
• Household consumption contributing the most to economic growth.

The Dutch economy grew by 1.8 percent in 2025. A total of 0.6 percent fewer hours were worked, meaning that labour productivity was 2.4 percent higher, year on year. Previously, labour productivity had fallen in both 2023 and 2024. This is reported by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) in its article ‘The Dutch economy in 2025’.

Economic growth can be the result of people working more and/or workers producing more per hour worked. A rise in labour productivity – GDP per hour worked – is the most important source of economic growth in the long term. This news release focuses on the growth of the Dutch economy as a whole and it therefore looks at hours worked and labour productivity across all sectors combined.

The increase in labour productivity in 2025 was the highest in twenty years. Over the past ten years, labour productivity has increased by an average of 0.3 percent per year. In the two preceding decades, labour productivity growth was higher, at 0.7 and 1.7 percent per year, respectively.

Household consumption contributed the most to growth

Household consumption contributed the most to economic growth in 2025. Adjusted for price changes, households consumed 1.5 percent more than they did in 2024. They spent more on services, such as transport and communication, housing, recreation and culture, and food and accommodation services, as well as on goods, such as food, clothing, footwear and electrical appliances. Growth was up on 2024, when consumption grew by 1.1 percent.

Consumers also had more to spend in 2025, on average. Household disposable income, adjusted for inflation, was 2.7 percent higher than in 2024.

In recent years, growth in consumption has been lower than growth in average disposable income. Geopolitical tensions, continuing relatively high inflation and uncertainty about the future are likely to have been a factor in this. The sense of caution among consumers is reflected in consumer confidence, which has now been negative for over 6.5 years. Such a long period of negative consumer sentiment is unprecedented.

Growth in government consumption, investment and exports

Economic growth in 2025 was broad-based. In addition to household spending, government consumption, the trade balance and investment also made a positive contribution to economic growth.

After two years of contraction, exports of goods and services grew by 2.4 percent last year. Despite international tensions and the imposition of higher import tariffs by the United States, global trade – on which the Netherlands depends – grew. Exports of Dutch products were up by 1.9 percent, re-exports (exports of previously imported products) were up by 3.8 percent and services exports were up by 1.3 percent. Specifically, exports of machinery, crude oil and natural gas, food, and agricultural and fishery products were higher.

Dutch economy outperformed neighbouring countries

At 1.8 percent, growth in the Dutch economy was higher than that of the European Union as a whole (1.5 percent). Economic growth in neighbouring countries was lower than in the Netherlands. Germany, the largest economy in Europe, grew by 0.2 percent following two consecutive years of economic contraction. In Belgium and France, growth stood at 1.0 and 0.8 percent respectively. In Europe, the Irish economy grew the fastest in 2025, but that figure is heavily skewed by multinationals that are based in Ireland.

Among the world’s three major economic blocs, China saw the highest economic growth at 5.0 percent. Economic growth in the US, at 2.1 percent, was also higher than in the EU. However, the gap between the US and Europe was smaller than it was in 2024.