The Dutch economy contracted by 0.3% in the first quarter of this year, not the 0.7% stated by national statistics agency CBS in its early estimate.

Better than expected export figures and new information about industrial investments led to the revised figure, the CBS said on Friday.

However, there was less positive news on jobs. There were 49,000 new jobs in the first three months of this year when compared with December 2022, and that is down 14,000 on the earlier forecast.

A contraction in the second quarter would mean the Netherlands had entered a slight recession, as has happened in Germany. Nevertheless, economists say that this is unlikely to be the case.