Monthly domestic household consumption change in the Netherlands 2000-2023

The coronavirus, and resulting quarantine measures, caused the biggest drop in domestic household consumption in the Netherlands in over 20 years. Consumers spent 0.5 percent more in August 2023 than in the same month in 2022. As it stands, Dutch economists believe both horeca (hotels, restaurants and bars) as well as construction to be the hardest hit industries of the coronavirus pandemic outbreak. By contrast, expenditure on food, beverages, and tobacco went up 9.1 percent in March 2020, the largest ever recorded increase in these product categories.

Beyond March 2020: the Canadian experience

The figures provided here are in line with predictions made in March itself, which predicted that Dutch household spending was to go down on nearly half of commonly used services or products. These predictions were based on the experiences Canada had in 2002/2003 with SARS, one of the few Western economies that was struck relatively hard by that pandemic. Back then, consumers bought more products in supermarkets in the first few months (February and March 2003) with expenses only going down around May 2003. Following this same pattern, and the potential effect of government measures in the Netherlands, the economic model predicted that 46 percent of all household spending would be affected either in March or in the following months of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Demand drops, so do prices

The large decrease in consumption or consumer demand, be it domestic or from abroad, has many ramifications for different industries. This shows, for example, in one of the industries that the Netherlands is most famous for: flowers. The average auction price of cut flowers reached its lowest level in March 2020, at 20 eurocents per flower. This after a price decrease of over 25 percent compared to February 2020.