But this time, it’s a single-celled virus causing the problem
The Dutch economy shrank at a significant pace in the first quarter of 2020, as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak. The contraction is the fastest since the low point of the financial crisis in 2009. This is revealed by Statistics Netherlands’ (CBS) latest economic figures.
The contraction is mainly due to the forced closings of cafés, restaurants and other hospitality establishments in March, which contributed to the GDP of the Netherlands falling by 1.7 percent compared to the previous period.
“In March the economy was hit head-on by the virus”, chief economist – and Groninger – Peter Hein van Mulligen of Statistics Netherlands said.
The only time the economy slipped faster in a quarter was in the first three months of 2009, when there was a 3.6 percent contraction. That was caused by the global financial crisis, and at the time poked the Dutch government to plough around 40 billion Euros into nationalising large financial institutions thought to be ‘systemically important’ such as SNS Bank and ABN Amro Holding. ING Groep was also given significant financial aid. That contraction in 2009 the largest quarterly shrinkage ever measured by Statistics Netherlands, which started with growth statistics in the 1990s.
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