Business Survey Netherlands (COEN)
The Business Survey Netherlands (Conjunctuurenquête Nederland, COEN) maps out the most important developments in the economic climate for Dutch entrepreneurs. It does so on both a national and a regional level. The COEN forms an addition to monthly surveys carried out by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and the Economic Institute for Construction (Economisch Instituut voor de Bouw, EIB) at a European level.
What is the COEN?
The COEN is a survey that interviews entrepreneurs each quarter about relevant topics, such as developments in turnover, profitability, investments, and staffing levels. Business owners answer questions about experiences in the past quarter and expectations for the current quarter. The business confidence survey combines various of these topics to identify an overall sentiment. This business confidence indicator is available for the Netherlands as a whole, and for various sectors and industries. Based on the results of the COEN, CBS also publishes monthly figures on producer confidence in the manufacturing industry.
2nd quarter, 2024 - Business Confidence Indicator
Business confidence, the mood indicator of the Dutch business sector, is negative for the 10th quarter in a row, reaching -6.0 at the start of the second quarter of 2024. This is lower than the series average (-4.1), but up from a quarter earlier, when the indicator stood at -7.7. This puts business confidence at its highest level since the start of the first quarter of 2022. 8 out of 14 business sectors saw an increase in the mood indicator, while 6 saw a decrease. Only in the business sectors Culture, sports and recreation, and Mining and quarrying is business confidence positive.
Business confidence increased from -7.7 to -6.0 in Q2 2024. Business confidence was relatively highest in Culture, sports and recreation (2.8), Mining & quarrying (1.7) and Business services (-1.0). Entrepreneurs in Agriculture, forestry and fishing (-15.1), Construction (-10.2) and Wholesale trade (-10.2) are relatively the most negative.
Expectations
On balance, entrepreneurs are positive about Turnover (19.6%), Sales prices/rates (12.2%), Personnel (12.1%), Purchase orders (10.7%), Business climate (1.5%) and Investments (1.2%).
Obstacles
36.5% of entrepreneurs experience Labour shortage. Furthermore, insufficient demand (20.8%), financial limitations (7.7%), shortage of production, material and space (7.5%), weather conditions (7.0%) or other reasons (8.8%) constitute obstacles. 33.7% of entrepreneurs experience no barriers. The different obstacles now add up to more than 100%. Entrepreneurs can enter a maximum of 2 answers for the obstacle question. The percentage represents the proportion of entrepreneurs who chose this obstacle.
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