Sharp drop in producers' confidence

The confidence of industry producers in the Netherlands decreased significantly this month, according to Statistics Netherlands. In August producers' confidence amounted to 1.2 on the statistics office's scale, compared to 5.1 in July - the biggest drop in confidence in five years. Despite the significant drop, a majority of the producers are still confident and at 1.2 the scale is still on positive and well above the 0.5 average of the last 20 years. Producers' confidence turned positive in October 2014 and remained positive since .The highest level was 9.4 reached in 2008 and the lowest was -23.5 about a year later. According to Statistics Netherlands, this months producers were more negative about their production in the coming three months. They were also more negative about their order books and their stocks of finished products.