The Dutch economy has neither grown nor contracted in the first three months of this year. According to preliminary figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), growth was 0.0 percent compared to the last three months of 2021.
“That does not mean that nothing happened,” says chief economist Peter Hein van Mulligen of CBS in an explanation. “It does mean that economic growth did not accelerate or slow down.”
And that’s not necessarily good or bad news, he says. “The fact that there was no growth is mainly because government spending was lower, which was back to a slightly more normal level.” In the final months of last year, the government still spent a lot of money on vaccinations and tests in connection with the corona pandemic.
In the second, third and fourth quarters of last year, the economy continued to grow.
It is rare for economic growth to reach zero. “But it can.” Statistics Netherlands emphasizes that this is a provisional figure. The corona crisis has led to crazy movements in the economy, so the preliminary figures are more uncertain than in normal times.
Lockdowns make measuring difficult
For example, it is difficult to measure how a sector performs when it is closed by the government, as happened during the lockdowns. As a result, consumers also spent somewhat less in the first quarter of this year.
According to Van Mulligen, economic growth throughout the European Union was moderate in the first months of this year. “Previously, the Netherlands did a little better than the European average, now a little less.” In France growth was also zero, in Germany plus 0.2 percent and in Belgium plus 0.3 percent.
Looking at the annual economic growth, the first quarter was a plus of 7 percent compared to the first months of 2021, when the country was still largely locked. “From such a low level it is easy to grow.”