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Dutch economy grows by 1pc in Q2

12 August 2004

AMSTERDAM — The Dutch economy grew by 1 percent in the second quarter of this year, mainly thanks to exports, figures indicated Thursday.

The Central Bureau of Statistics, commonly known as the CBS, published a report Thursday comparing growth in the second quarter this year with the same period the year before.

The rise in productivity per worker was “considerable”, the CBS noted.

It has forecast growth for the whole of 2004 will reach 1.25 percent, compared with a fall of 0.9 percent for 2003.

But it also noted that Dutch economic growth is still well behind other European countries, with Germany and France also publishing figures on Thursday putting their growth at 2 and 2.2 percent respectively.

The value of Dutch exports rose 6.7 percent in the second quarter of 2004, compared with the same period last year — that is the largest growth since the end of 2000. Export growth in the first quarter of this year was up 2.3 percent.

“The motor behind the light growth in the volume of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was the strong performance of exports,” the CBS said. Exports rose by 5.5 percent in the period April to June 2004.

Household consumption and business investment was “a fraction lower” and still pressuring the economy, the CBS said. But it did detect signs household consumption was recovering, as the public spent more on services in the second quarter. But spending on goods was down.

Despite the overall positive outcome in the second quarter, the economy was still down 0.2 percent compared with the first three months of the year.

“The economic growth in the first quarter was boosted by favourable building weather, leading to significantly higher production in the construction sector,” the CBS said.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

Subject: Dutch news