Slower growth rate of goods & services exports in 2005
14 Feb '06
3 min read
Statistics office of Netherlands releases economic growth rate for 2005. Preliminary estimates by Statistics Netherlands put Dutch economic growth at 0.9 percent in 2005. This is nearly half the growth of 1.7 percent in 2004, but well above the zero increase in 2002-2003.
Again, exports led the modest economic recovery last year. In addition consumption and fixed capital formation each contributed a little. The number of jobs was 0.4 percent down on 2004, but the decrease was much smaller than in 2004.
In the fourth quarter of 2005 the gross domestic product, GDP, was 1.6 percent higher than in the same quarter twelve months previously. This was the highest quarter-on-quarter growth in 2005.
The growth in the fourth quarter was caused by a upturn in consumption expenditure and an increasing trade surplus. The number of jobs in the fourth quarter was 0.2 percent higher than twelve months previously. This was the first time in nearly three years that jobs were up on the same period in the previous year.
After correction for seasonal and working day effects, the volume of GDP was 1.0 percent larger in the fourth quarter than in the third quarter of 2005. The fourth quarter had two working days fewer than the fourth quarter of 2004. The quarter-on-quarter growth was much higher than the average of the preceding four quarters.
The volume of exports of goods and services was 4.8 percent higher in 2005 than in 2004. This is a lower growth rate than in 2004.
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