THE HAGUE, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- The economic growth in the Netherlands is likely to decline to 1.4 percent by 2020, mainly due to a negative international economic climate, the CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis announced in its CPB's August Projections 2020 on Thursday.
"Dutch economic growth will decline, due to the ill wind sweeping in from abroad," the CPB said in a press release. "The substantial downward economic risks have increased further. United States trade policy and the responses to this policy, the growing possibility of a chaotic Brexit, and the political developments in Italy are all significant threats to the Dutch economy."
With the projected economic growth of 1.4 percent the Dutch economic growth continues the trend of the past years with a gross domestic product of 2.9 percent in 2017, 2.6 in 2018 and 1.8 in 2019.
"The economic turning point is behind us," CPB's director Laura van Geest added in the press release. "The pace is slowing down. Unemployment will remain low, but employment growth will level off, substantially, in particular in the market sector. The Dutch economy is driven predominately by domestic spending, exports are affected by the fallout from developments in other countries."
According to the CPB, unemployment will reach its lowest level in 2019, with 310,000 persons unemployed, and will continue to be exceptionally low in 2020, with a total of 335,000. In addition, purchasing power will see a positive development in 2020, due to increases in real wages and, to a lesser extent, policy measures. Inflation will go down 1.3 percent in 2020, from 2.6 in 2019.
On Wednesday the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics announced that economic growth in the Netherlands increased by 0.5 percent in the second quarter of 2019 compared to Q1 of 2019. This is the same growth rate as in the previous two quarters. Growth in Q2 2019 was mainly due to increased investments in fixed assets, household consumption and the trade balance.
