Economic outlook less negative in September

In September, the economic outlook in the Netherlands was less negative than in August. The outlook has been gradually improving since August 2025. Statistics Netherlands’ Business Cycle Tracer (CBS Conjunctuurklok, an indicator of key economic figures) shows the most important figures for the economy.

In September, 9 of the 13 components performed worse than usual. The Business Cycle Tracer helps show how the Dutch economy is performing. It provides information from Statistics Netherlands.

Not all people, companies, and regions experience these figures in the same way. Consumers were less negative in September, but they were still not positive. Producers (the companies that make things) were more positive than in August.

Consumer confidence is nevertheless below the average of the past twenty years. Producer confidence is above average. Exports increased, households bought more, and companies invested more.

In July, 2.1 percent more goods were exported than in July 2025. Companies sold more machinery, equipment, chemical products, and transport equipment abroad. In June, growth was 3.4 percent.

In July, households bought 1.2 percent more goods than in July 2025. They mainly bought more goods. In July 2026, there was also slightly more investment in goods such as machinery.

Industrial production was 9 percent higher in July than a year earlier. This was the strongest growth in four years. In June, growth was still 5 percent.

Production also increased in July compared with June. More companies went bankrupt in August. Thirty-eight more companies were declared bankrupt than in June.

That is an increase of 14 percent. Owner-occupied home prices were 3.3 percent higher in August than a year earlier. In July, the price increase was slightly higher, at 3.9 percent.

The increase in house prices is becoming smaller. In August, prices were 0.1 percent lower than in July 2026. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4 percent in August.

There were 408,000 people without work. This number increased by an average of 3,000 people per month over the past three months. People worked a total of more than 3.7 billion hours in the second quarter.

That is the same as in the previous quarter. At the end of the second quarter, there were 375,000 open vacancies, 3,000 fewer than before. The number of vacancies is therefore declining.

Revenue from temporary employment agencies and employment agencies was 5.8 percent higher than a year earlier. In the second quarter of 2026, gross domestic product grew by 0.6 percent compared with the first quarter. This was mainly because households spent more, exports exceeded imports by a larger margin, and the government spent more.