Dutch Q1 Economic Growth Adjusted Sharply Downwards
THE HAGUE, 26/06/13 - The Dutch economy did even worse in the first quarter than previously announced. The Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS) on Tuesday revised its GDP estimate sharply downwards.
The CBS now says Dutch economic growth was -0.4 percent in the first quarter of 2013 compared with the fourth quarter of 2012. The first estimate, published on 15 May, put growth at -0.1 percent. Compared with the first quarter of 2012, the economy shrank by 1.8 percent. This is slightly worse than the first estimate of 1.7 percent. On the expenditure side, consumption by households and fixed capital formation have been adjusted downwards. Government consumption was adjusted slightly upwards on the other hand. On the production side, value added of mineral extraction, trade and transport, and business services were adjusted downwards, while value added in construction, financial institutions, and government were adjusted upwards. Alongside the publication of the second estimate for the first quarter of 2013, the CBS on Tuesday published revised annual estimates for 2010 (definite), 2011 (revised provisionally) and 2012 (provisional). On the basis of more recently available information, economic growth in these years has been corrected downwards: in 2010 from 1.6 to 1.5 percent, in 2011 from 1.0 to 0.9 percent and in 2012 from -1.0 to -1.2 percent. The quarterly figures for these years have also been adjusted. After adjustment for seasonal effects, the number of employee jobs in the Netherlands was 51,000 lower in the first quarter of 2013 than in the fourth quarter. According to the first estimate the fall was 34,000. Compared with the 2012 first quarter, the fall was 121,000 jobs. In the first estimate this was 99,000. More jobs than previously estimated were lost in business services and in trade and transport in particular. Wages per labour year were 2.0 percent higher than in the first quarter last year. |