The Dutch economy will shrink 0.9% this year, according to European Commission forecasts published on Thursday. Brussels is more pessimistic than the Netherlands’ own statistics agency, which puts the contraction at 0.5% in its most recent forecasts.

The Commission says the EU economy as a whole will contract by 0.3% and the economies of nine EU member states will shrink.
Greece will perform worst, with a contraction of 4.4%, followed by Portugal (3.3%), Italy (1.3%), Spain (1%) and then the Netherlands.