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A quarter of the Netherlands' economic growth last year ended abroad, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) reports. This is partly due to Shell's move to the UK and profits from its Dutch subsidiaries largely flowing there.
Other companies also paid some of their significantly increased profits abroad. In the Netherlands, most of the economic growth went to households.
According to CBS, the fact that a significant portion of Dutch economic growth went abroad was also due to a previous agreement on the closure of the Groningen gas field. Due to the accelerated closure, the Non-Aligned Movement receives compensation from the government to fill the gas storage in Norge with foreign gas. In addition to the British company Shell, the American company ExxonMobil owns the Non-Aligned Movement.
While foreign countries generally benefited from Dutch economic growth in 2022, the opposite was the case the previous year. At that time, people in the Netherlands received more credit from abroad, for example through dividends or salaries from foreign employers.
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The Dutch economy grew by 4.5 percent in 2022, but without correcting for high inflation, this figure was 10 percent, according to Statistics Netherlands. A large portion of this, half, ended up in captivity. Their disposable income, that is, what remains after paying taxes and Social Security contributions, increased before and after correcting for inflation.
One reason is that people started working much more, with a record number of hours worked in 2022. But people who worked less actually suffered because wages did not rise as quickly as prices. In effect, the disposable income of corporations declined because they paid much of their increased dividends largely to shareholders.
Source: National Police Agency
