Business confidence for Q3 2025 less negative in the Netherlands

Business confidence for the third quarter of 2025 rose to -3.8. There was a particular in-crease in confidence in the transportation & storage sector and the wholesale trade & commission sector. Even so, companies are slightly more likely to perceive obstacles in 2025, and opinions on investment are divided. This is reported by Statistics Netherlands (CBS), the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (KvK), the EIB, the Dutch Organisation for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MKB-Nederland) and the Dutch Employers’ Organisation (VNO-NCW) on the basis of the July edition of the Netherlands Business Survey (COEN).
The increase in business confidence is mainly because businesses are less negative regard-ing the economic environment; when it comes to the economic outlook, they are almost as negative as they were in Q2 2025. Business confidence is now very close to the average (-3.7) for the series since 2012.

Largest increase in transportation & storage sector

Business confidence rose in eight industrial sectors and fell in four. It rose the most in the transportation & storage sector, from -12.0 to -0.9. It also increased in business ser-vices, turning from negative to positive. Along with information and communications, these are the only sectors where business confidence is in positive territory. Confidence fell by the most in agriculture, forestry & fishing, and that sector also recorded the most negative figure. Confidence also fell in accommodation & food services, real estate activities and the retail sector, but remained at around the same level as in Q2.

Largest increase in transportation & storage sector

Business confidence rose in eight industrial sectors and fell in four. It rose the most in the transportation & storage sector, from -12.0 to -0.9. It also increased in business ser-vices, turning from negative to positive. Along with information and communications, these are the only sectors where business confidence is in positive territory. Confidence fell by the most in agriculture, forestry & fishing, and that sector also recorded the most negative figure. Confidence also fell in accommodation & food services, real estate activities and the retail sector, but remained at around the same level as in Q2.

Over half of sectors expect to invest more

Almost as many businesses expect to invest more this year as expect to invest less. On balance, then, investment expectations are around the same as a year ago. Seven out of the twelve industrial sectors expect to invest more, on balance.

Businesses in the real estate activities sector are the most positive regarding investment this year. On balance, 17 percent of them expect to invest more. Last year, the share was almost 25 percent. Compared to 2024, investment expectations improved by the most in the transportation and storage sector, with a net increase from 3 to 12 percent.

Businesses in the construction, information & communication, retail and accommodation & food services sectors have negative expectations regarding investment. In the accommo-dation & food services sector, businesses were the most negative with a score of -12 per-cent, on balance. This number also fell by the most compared to last year. In the manufac-turing sector, businesses with a positive outlook were around the same in number as those with a negative outlook.

Source: CBS
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