This is the second time that an official recession has been recorded since the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic
Translated by Thomas Ansell
Perhaps predictably, a global pandemic has been bad news for the Dutch economy; which is highly globalised and dependent on multinational companies and supply lines. As reported by the NOS, the Dutch economy has officially entered a recession (where the economy shrinks in two quarters in a row).
In the first quarter of 2021, the economy shrunk by 0.5 percent, and in the last quarter of 2020 is shrunk by 0.1 percent, according to the CBS.
Economic analysts say that the economic shrinkage is due to lower spending from both the Dutch government, and people themselves: household spending dropped by 3.5 percent in the last three months of 2020. However increased recent investment from companies, and trade re-picking up as some wealthy Western nations carry out vaccination campaigns, has helped re-float the Dutch economy.
Chief economist Peter Hein van Mulligen says that the biggest economic crimp came in the first quarter of 2021: “in the course of the hard lockdown, with the curfew, and the closure of non-essential shops”.
In conjunction with the recession, the number of people without work in the Netherlands increased, but there were also more jobs created. The Dutch economy is rising and falling essentially in-line with its Western European neighbours: Germany’s economy fell by 1.7 percent in the first quarter of this year, whilst Belgium and France have avoided recessions.
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