Despite the overall decline, three out of five manufacturing industries saw an increase in their output year on year. Adjusting for seasonal and working-day effects, manufacturing output increased by 0.4 per cent between January and February, demonstrating significant short-term fluctuations.
The Dutch manufacturing industry experienced a sharp decline in output in the spring of 2020, reaching a low point in May of that year. Since then, the trend has been generally upward, but it has reversed since May 2022, as per CBS.
In March 2023, producer confidence among Dutch manufacturers improved, with manufacturers expressing more positivity about future output and less negativity about their stocks of finished products.
Germany, which is a crucial market for the Dutch manufacturing industry, also experienced a rise in business confidence in March, according to the IFO Institute's Business Climate Index. German entrepreneurs were less pessimistic about their future situation and more positive about the current situation. The average daily output generated by the German manufacturing industry was up by 1.7 per cent YoY in February, according to Destatis, the Federal Statistical Office of Germany.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DP)