Market Information Thursday 21 April 2022

The confidence of Dutch consumers has fallen to its lowest level ever. This is evident from figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) published this morning. The index that measures consumer confidence came out at -48 in April this year. In March 2022 the index came out at -39. The previous low was reached in March 2013 during the euro crisis, when the consumer confidence score stood at -41. The average consumer confidence over the past twenty years is -8.

In the week ending April 15, crude oil inventories increased by 8.0 million barrels to 413.7 million. This was revealed on Wednesday by figures from the US energy agency EIA. Gasoline stocks, on the other hand, fell by 0.8 million barrels to 232.4 million barrels. Capacity utilization rose 1 percentage point to 91.0% from a week earlier.

Unemployment in the Netherlands continued to decline in March. This is evident from figures from the Statistics Netherlands (CBS) published this morning. In March the number of unemployed in the Netherlands was 327,000 or 3.3% of the labor force of approximately 9.8 million. In February this year, unemployment was still 3.4%. In July 2020, unemployment in the Netherlands reached its highest point in 5 years at 5.5%. Since then, unemployment has been falling steadily.

The 6M Euribor decreased with 1 basis point to -0.33% compared to previous business day. The 10Y Swap decreased with 7 basis points to 1.57% compared to previous business day.

In the attachment, today’s market data on money and capital market rates as well as other rates are presented.