Kingdom of the Netherlands—Netherlands Selected Issues
IMF Staff Country Reports, July 14, 2005
Source details
- Canonical URL
- Kingdom of the Netherlands—Netherlands Selected Issues
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Bibliographic details
- Published: July 14, 2005
- Series: IMF Staff Country Reports
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451829518.002
Summary
- The Selected Issues paper highlights that Dutch cost competitiveness deteriorated significantly in the years prior to 2004.
- Relatively poor economic performance during the new millennium contributed to competitiveness concerns.
- Restrained export performance contributed specifically to those concerns.
- The deceleration of private consumption growth started earlier than the deceleration of per capita real disposable income growth.
- The consumption deceleration occurred at a time when the unemployment rate was at a historic low and interest rates had declined.
Major themes and substantive findings
- Cost competitiveness
- Deteriorated significantly in the years prior to 2004.
- Economic performance
- Relatively poor performance during the new millennium contributed to competitiveness concerns.
- Exports
- Restrained export performance was a specific contributor to the competitiveness issues.
- Consumption and income dynamics
- Deceleration of private consumption growth preceded deceleration of per capita real disposable income growth.
- This consumption slowdown occurred despite a historic low unemployment rate and lower interest rates.
Subject classification and keywords
- Subject: Consumption, Disposable income, Expenditure, Exports, Housing prices, International trade, National accounts, Prices
- Keywords: Consumption, CR, Disposable income, euro competitor, Europe, Exports, Global, growth in the Netherlands, house price, Housing prices, ISCR, nondurables consumption data, wealth elasticity