The confidence of industrial businesses is decreasing in Netherlands — but less rapidly than in the EU
In April the confidence of industrial businesses in Netherlands decreased somewhat compared to the same month last year, down from 5.8 to 3.4.
In the same time, EU countries industrial businesses confidence have decreased significantly, down from 7.3 to -3.7 on average. This is the lowest recorded level since October 2013.
Netherlands now has the sixth highest confidence of industrial businesses in the EU compared to the other 28 countries. Ireland has the highest confidence of industrial businesses (17.1 points), while Malta ranks last (-22.4 points).
Confidence of industrial businesses in EU countries
| The whole country | 2019 (April) | 2018 (April) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | -4.1 | 11.5 | -15.6 |
| Belgium | -7.1 | -1.9 | -5.2 |
| Bulgaria | -1.3 | 3.3 | -4.6 |
| Croatia | 5.8 | 9.5 | -3.7 |
| Cyprus | 4.9 | 7.1 | -2.2 |
| Czech Republic | -2.2 | 4.5 | -6.7 |
| Denmark | -5.6 | 0.2 | -5.8 |
| Estonia | -2.7 | 7.4 | -10.1 |
| Finland | -2.7 | 12.7 | -15.4 |
| France | -7.2 | 4.2 | -11.4 |
| Germany | -5.3 | 12.5 | -17.8 |
| Greece | -0.9 | -1.2 | +0.3 |
| Hungary | 11.7 | 10.1 | +1.6 |
| Ireland | 17.1 | 24.9 | -7.8 |
| Italy | -5 | 2.8 | -7.8 |
| Latvia | -2.6 | 0.8 | -3.4 |
| Lithuania | -2.8 | -1 | -1.8 |
| Luxembourg | -19.7 | -8.3 | -11.4 |
| Malta | -22.4 | -4.4 | -18 |
| Netherlands | 3.4 | 5.8 | -2.4 |
| Poland | -8.4 | -5 | -3.4 |
| Portugal | -4.9 | -0.1 | -4.8 |
| Romania | 0.5 | 0 | +0.5 |
| Slovakia | -15.2 | 6.2 | -21.4 |
| Slovenia | 0.2 | 9.3 | -9.1 |
| Spain | -4.9 | 3.3 | -8.2 |
| Sweden | 8.6 | 19.9 | -11.3 |
| United Kingdom | -4.6 | 5.1 | -9.7 |
About the industrial indicator
This indicator is based on businesses surveyed on production, employment expectations, order-book levels, stocks of finished products and selling price.
For all surveys the difference between positive and negative answers (in percentage points of total answers) are averaged to calculate an indicator.
The economic sentiment indicator (ESI) is calculated as an index with mean value of 100 and standard deviation of 10 over a fixed standardised sample period.