Despite the decline, producer confidence in the Netherlands is still above average. The decline in confidence is partly attributable to expectations of a decline in demand. “That’s because now consumers are really starting to feel the inflation,” Lukkezen explains. ‘They’re going to cut costs.’ The same goes for the government. The government wants to complete the budget. ‘You have to take something away from everything, the cheese slicer is a proven tool.’
Germany
The same is happening in Germany as in the Netherlands, but slightly worse, says Lukkezen. Producer confidence fell a little faster than in the Netherlands and last week it became clear that the country had entered a recession. Germany is an important sales market for the Netherlands and our economies are interconnected. A quarter of Dutch exports go to Germany and 15% of our imports come from Germany.
But the cohesion between our economies has declined slightly over the past three decades, says Lukkezen. This is because the Dutch economy has become much more diversified, ties with the rest of the world have increased and those with Germany have remained the same. And geopolitical tensions are putting some pressure on the sale of large capital goods from Germany to China and other countries. In addition, the countries to which Germany exports are developing in the technical field, which means that Germany’s advantage is decreasing.
The IMF sees the economic contraction in Germany to continue for longer. Lukkezen also expects the Netherlands to feel the impact. “But if you look at industry and services, things are really better here than in Germany.”