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The Economy of Netherlands

Dutch Economy

Netherlands' map

Economy - overview: The Netherlands has a prosperous and open economy, which depends heavily on foreign trade. The economy is noted for stable industrial relations, moderate unemployment and inflation, a sizable current account surplus, and an important role as a European transportation hub. Industrial activity is predominantly in food processing, chemicals, petroleum refining, and electrical machinery. A highly mechanized agricultural sector employs no more than 3% of the labor force but provides large surpluses for the food-processing industry and for exports. The Netherlands, along with 11 of its EU partners, began circulating the euro currency on 1 January 2002. The country has been one of the leading European nations for attracting foreign direct investment and is one of the four largest investors in the US. The pace of job growth reached 10-year highs in 2007, but economic growth fell sharply in 2008 as fallout from the world financial crisis constricted demand and raised the specter of a recession in 2009.

GDP:

GDP - real growth rate: 1.8% (2008 est.) 3.5% (2007 est.) 3.4% (2006 est.)

GDP - per capita:

GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 2% industry: 24.4% services: 73.6% (2008 est.)

Population below poverty line:

Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 2.5% highest 10%: 22.9% (1999)

Distribution of family income - Gini index: 30.9 (2007)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):

Labor force: 7.75 million (2008 est.)

Labor force - by occupation: agriculture: 2% industry: 18% services: 80% (2005 est.)

Unemployment rate: 4.5% (2008 est.)

Budget: revenues: $408.5 billion expenditures: $398.8 billion (2008 est.)

Industries: agroindustries, metal and engineering products, electrical machinery and equipment, chemicals, petroleum, construction, microelectronics, fishing

Industrial production growth rate: 2.1% (2008 est.)

Electricity - production: 105.2 billion kWh (2007)

Electricity - production by source:

Electricity - consumption: 122.8 billion kWh (2007)

Electricity - exports: 5.48 billion kWh (2007)

Electricity - imports: 23.09 billion kWh (2007)

Oil - production: 88,950 bbl/day (2007 est.)

Oil - consumption: 984,200 bbl/day (2007 est.)

Oil - exports: 1.639 million bbl/day (2005)

Oil - imports: 2.648 million bbl/day (2005)

Oil - proved reserves: 100 million bbl (1 January 2008 est.)

Natural gas - production: 76.33 billion cu m (2007 est.)

Natural gas - consumption: 46.42 billion cu m (2007 est.)

Natural gas - exports: 55.66 billion cu m (2007 est.)

Natural gas - imports: 25.73 billion cu m (2007 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves: 1.416 trillion cu m (1 January 2008 est.)

Agriculture - products: grains, potatoes, sugar beets, fruits, vegetables; livestock

Exports: $537.5 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.)

Exports - commodities: machinery and equipment, chemicals, fuels; foodstuffs

Exports - partners: Germany 24.4%, Belgium 13.6%, UK 9.1%, France 8.5%, Italy 5.1%, US 4.3% (2007)

Imports: $485.3 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.)

Imports - commodities: machinery and transport equipment, chemicals, fuels, foodstuffs, clothing

Imports - partners: Germany 17.7%, China 10.5%, Belgium 9.3%, US 7.3%, UK 5.8%, Russia 5.1%, France 4.4% (2007)

Debt - external: $2.277 trillion (30 June 2007)

Economic aid - recipient:

Currency:

Currency code:

Exchange rates: euros (EUR) per US dollar - 0.6827 (2008 est.), 0.7345 (2007), 0.7964 (2006), 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004)

Fiscal year: