Economists have predicted that the six months people in The Netherlands have spent in isolation from each other is having a profoundly negative impact on the retail and hospitality sectors. The FoodService Instituut (FSIN) predicted that the food services sector along would lose a catastrophic €7.1bn revenues in 2020. Restaurants, cafes and hotels are likely to lose 41.5% of their expected intake, it wrote.
The Dutch will also spend €5.5bn less on food items as they steer clear of luxury products and the usual flood of millions of tourists stay at home. The only bright spot in the food sector are the supermarkets, who are doing a booming business and should see €1.8bn in revenue growth for 2020. Bank economists predict that a sharp drop in spending this year will drive the country into recession and fear that a 4 percent fall in GDP is on the way. They point out that spending over the Easter weekend was 22 percent off of last year’s figures.
