The indirect effects of the first wave of the corona pandemic in the Netherlands had already played out in several areas by this summer. For example, the number of crimes had returned to the old level, as had the total number of marriages and partnerships concluded.
However, things like consumption or the number of passengers transported are still far from the old level. The economy was hit exceptionally hard in the first half of 2020. Such a severe contraction of the Dutch economy has not been seen before as observed in the second quarter. Yet this contraction was still relatively mild compared to many other European countries, according to CBS.
Compared to other European countries, the Dutch economy fared relatively well. The German economy contracted by 9.7 percent in the second quarter, the Belgian by 12.1 percent, and the French by 13.8 percent. Within the European Union, the Spanish economy was the hardest hit with a contraction of 17.8 percent in the second quarter. Finland was the least affected. But the Finnish economy still contracted by 4.4 percent.
An important factor in the contraction of the economy is the sharply reduced consumption by households. In the Netherlands, consumption volume shrank by 10.8 percent in the second quarter compared to the previous quarter. In Germany, the contraction was slightly less at 9.5 percent, while in Belgium and France it was somewhat larger at 11.5 and 12.0 percent respectively. In Spain, the contraction was almost the largest at 23.7 percent, second only to Malta. Finland, together with Lithuania, recorded the lowest contraction at 6.4 percent.
Although unemployment also rose in the Netherlands, it remains low by European standards. In August, unemployment in the Netherlands stood at 4.6 percent of the labor force (dropping slightly in September). But a handful of EU member states, including Germany, had lower unemployment rates in August.
The lowest unemployment was in the Czech Republic, at 2.7 percent. In Spain, unemployment was by far the highest, at 16.2 percent. Unemployment was already relatively high in Spain and surged rapidly following the outbreak of the pandemic. Incidentally, unemployment in Greece is likely somewhat higher, but August figures are not yet available for this country.