- GDP growth in the Netherlands is expected to be slow, dipping to 1.5% in 2020 and declining further to about 1.3% per year by 2026 due to trade disputes and Brexit uncertainty weighing on global activity and a dent in demand for European goods. However, the domestic economy is anticipated to remain resilient due to a tight labour market increasing job demand and expansionary fiscal policies that are foreseen to moderate the slowdown to some extent.
- The Netherlands government is expected to make significant changes to the tax system. One of these significant changes is the unification of most VAT rates. The government also introduced several measures such as the abolition of tax on company dividends for foreign investors and the increase in the statutory retirement age to boost both short term and long-term performance of the economy.
- Unemployment has seen improvement in 2019 with the proportion of permanent employees increasing for the first time in a decade. This improvement is partially due to the tightness in the labour market, done in a likely attempt to avoid repeating the staff shortage that occurred in 2018. However, unemployment is expected to rise gradually, with business investment projected to soften, reflecting the worsening trade environment.