Amsterdam: The Dutch economy grew a preliminary 0.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2014 compared to the previous three months, driven by higher exports and investment, the Statistics Netherlands said on Thursday.
A first-quarter contraction was revised to 0.4 per cent, from an earlier 0.5 per cent, the bureau said. Year-on-year, gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.9 per cent in the second quarter.
Economists surveyed by Reuters had expected quarterly growth of 0.5 per cent and year-on-year growth of 0.6 per cent.
The economic growth was driven by higher exports, mostly machines and metals.
“Oil and gas exports were lower, but these were more than compensated by a strong rise in exports of base metals, metal products, machines and installations. There was also a strong rise in exports of agricultural products,” it said.
Weather
The growth was good news for the Netherlands, which saw its economy shrink by an unexpectedly sharp 1.4 percent in the first quarter of 2014 when unseasonably warm weather hit demand for natural gas, which is a major contributor to Dutch economic output.
The central bank had warned that political uncertainty in Europe due to the Ukraine crisis might hurt the economy this year, but that did not show through in the latest figures.
The central bank forecast the economy will expand by 0.2 per cent in 2014 after two years of contraction, with growth picking up to 1.6 per cent in 2015 and 2016 as domestic spending recovers. Six months ago, the central bank had expected growth of only 0.9 per cent next year.
