Dutch Sentiment Improves to 21-Month High in December
Written on December 21, 2009
Dutch consumer confidence climbed to the highest in 21 months in December as a recovery of global trade helped boost exports.
The consumer-sentiment index in the euro area’s fifth- largest economy rose to minus 11 from minus 14 in the previous month, the national statistics bureau in The Hague said on its Web site today. That was above the minus 12 median estimate of four economists in a Bloomberg survey. This month’s reading is the highest since March 2008, when the index was at minus 10, according to the bureau.
“Sentiment about the future economic situation became more positive,” the bureau said personal loans for bad credit. “The willingness of consumers to buy goods was almost unchanged.”
The Dutch economy came out of a recession in the third quarter, helped by exports to Asia and the U.S. Although unemployment continues to rise, the Dutch government this week cut its forecast for the 2010 jobless rate to 6.5 percent from an earlier estimate of 8 percent.
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