Confidence among Dutch manufacturers has improved slightly in March this year, according to Statistics Netherlands (CBS). Producer confidence rose from 3.7 in February to 4 in March as manufacturers are more positive about future output and less negative about their stocks of finished products. Their opinion about order positions have hardly changed.

In more than half of the key industrial sectors, producer confidence has deteriorated in the month.

In the textile, apparel and leather sector, producer confidence was less than 5 in March from a value between 9 and 10 in February.

Producer confidence has exceeded the long-term average of 1.2 for years. It reached an all-time high (12.7) in November 2021 and an all-time low (minus 28.7) in April 2020.

Two component indicators of producer confidence are positive. The majority of manufacturers consider their order position to be strong rather than weak, given the time of year. Furthermore, manufacturers anticipating output to increase over the next three months outnumber those expecting a decrease.

However, there was one negative component indicator: more manufacturers define their current stocks of finished products as too large rather than too small.

In January this year, the average daily output of the Dutch manufacturing industry was down by 2.9 per year on year—the first decline in almost two years.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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Producer confidence slightly up in Netherlands in March 2023: CBS

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