Dutch Producer Confidence Highest Since May 2011, Tops Forecast

(RTTNews) - Dutch producers' confidence improved for the second straight month in December to reach its highest level in three-and-a-half years, as manufacturers were more positive regarding their order position, survey figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics showed Wednesday.

The producers' confidence index rose to 3.4 in December from 2.4 in the previous month. Economists had forecast the confidence to rise to 2.6. The latest figure was the highest since May 2011.

The improvement in the index in December was mainly due to more positive assessment of the expected activity, the corresponding index rose to 6.1 from 5.4 in the previous month.

Opinion on order books recovered and climbed to 2.3 in December from -0.4 in the prior month. But producers were less optimistic about their finished production than in the previous month, with the index easing to 1.7 from 2.1.