So says Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, here:
Dutch retail sales collapsed by 11pc in April, even worse than the 9.7pc drop in Spain. (Royal holidays cannot explain this). ...
This is not contagion from Greece or any such nonsense. It is the result of the eurozone's destructive policy mix. ...
The consequence of Holland’s accelerating downward slide may well be an anti-euro coalition in The Hague this Autumn.
I reported from Amsterdam in April that the Dutch property market is tipping into deeper slump, with the inventory of unsold homes nearing Spanish levels . . .: Rabobank said home prices have fallen 11pc from their peak in August 2008, or 15pc in real terms, leaving up to 500,000 people in negative equity. The stock of unsold properties has doubled to 221,000 since 2008, almost double the declared level in the US on a per-capita basis.
