According to the second provisional estimate of Statistics Netherlands' quarterly national accounts, Dutch economic growth was 2.5 percent in the first quarter of 2007 compared with the same period last year. This increase was realised with one working day fewer than in 2006.
The result is the same as the first provisional estimate, published on 15 May. Some components have been adjusted, however. Consumption by households and by the government, for example, were higher, while fixed capital formation, product stocks and imports were lower. On the production side, growth rates were higher for financial institutions and the government sector, while for manufacturing the increase was smaller.
Quarter-on-quarter growth did change: Compared with the previous quarter, the economy grew by 0.9 percent in the first quarter of 2007. This quarter-on-quarter growth is 0.3 of a percentage point higher than in the first estimate published in May. The main reason for this is the new calculation method for quarter-on-quarter growth.
This tempered economic growth considerably in the first quarter. Mainly as a consequence of lower gas consumption, consumption by households and exports increased by less than in 2006. Households will only notice the benefits of lower gas use in their purses in the course of the year.
Households did spend more on durable consumer goods such as clothes and consumer electronics. Exports of Dutch manufactured products grew just as fast as last year, in spite of the decrease in gas exports.
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