The Kingdom of the Netherlands—Netherlands: Selected Issues

IMF Staff Country Reports, February 12, 2019

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The Selected Issues paper details the sources and uses of non-financial corporation saving and highlights the role of multinational corporations (MNCs).
The large Dutch international investment position reflects the Netherlands' status as an international corporate center.
Large trade surpluses and small primary income balances are consistent with the dominance of MNCs in the Netherlands' external positions.
Small and medium enterprises are stagnant and remain financially constrained.
Small household net saving hides that households are still highly leveraged and that consumption is constrained by a stagnating disposable income.

Separating MNCs’ activities from the Dutch current account for the external sector assessment is expected to help identify underlying policy distortions.
Separating MNCs’ activities would help identify imbalances of other economic sectors and clarify the domestic sources of external imbalances.

Improve statistics and separate MNCs’ activities from both internal and external accounts to better identify domestic policy distortions and address imbalances effectively.
Focus policy and financial support on alleviating financial constraints faced by small and medium enterprises.
Address household leverage and stagnating disposable income to relieve consumption constraints.

Subject: Expenditure, Income, Labor, National accounts, Pension reform, Pension spending, Pensions, Self-employment
Keywords: CR, dividend payout, Europe, firm, GDP, Global, government net, gross saving, Income, investment-saving ratio, ISCR, Netherlands, NFCS' saving-investment balance, Pension reform, pension scheme, Pension spending, Pensions, pillar pension schemes, saving, Self-employment