Consumer spending change in the Netherlands due to coronavirus 2020
a recession might hit later in the year. Especially out-of-home leisure activities, like visiting a restaurant or going to a theme park, saw huge changes in the number of recorded debit card transactions, decreasing by over 80 percent to a comparable day in 2019. Other retail stores, however, saw a notable increase. DIY stores, toy shops and supermarkets especially, saw a surge in transactions.
An overview on how many payment transactions were done at, for example, supermarkets or restaurants reveals how much COVID-19 changed Dutch consumer behavior. Measures from the Dutch government already left visible marks on parts of the Dutch economy on both March 19th and March 20th, 2020, even before