The Dutch economy did not grow in the third quarter of this year, making it the second consecutive three-month period of zero growth, the national statistics office CBS said on Friday.

The figures were published as world leaders, including Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende, head for Washington for a summit to discuss the global crisis. According to news agency Reuters, European Union data due later on Friday is expected to show the 15-nation euro zone is in recession.
Yesterday, finance minister Wouter Bos warned that the economy may shrink next year.
Compared with the 2007 third-quarter (which had one extra working day), the Dutch economy has grown 1.8%, the CBS said. This is the lowest quarterly increase since the beginning of 2005.
The slowdown is largely due to a less growth in investments and, to a lesser extent, a decline in consumer spending, said the CBS.
Consumer spending went up 1.3% in the third quarter which is ‘clearly less’ than the first half of the year, said the CBS. The slowdown was most obvious in the service sector with spending on the hotel and catering sector down in real terms.
Businesses
The growth in exports also stagnated in the third quarter. Exports were up 4.3% rise on the same 2007 period, which is more or less the same as the second quarter. Imports were up 4.6% in the period under review.
The CBS also reported that business investments in the third quarter were 3.8% higher than in the same 2007 period. This is ‘significantly lower’ than the first half of the year when the rise was 8.5%. Construction in the commercial sector and the computer industry were hardest hit.
Production across the board is also slowing down and has all but disappeared in the industrial sector, warned the CBS. The only areas booking growth in terms of production were healthcare and agriculture.
On the employment front, an extra 113,000 jobs were created in the third quarter, bringing the total to eight million. But the actual growth was 0.1% lower on a quarter-on-quarter basis.