Netherlands Inflation

Inflation picks up in May from April

Latest reading: Harmonized consumer prices were up 3.4% in annual terms in May, following a 2.5% increase in the previous month. May's reading was the strongest since April 2025. Relative to the prior month's figures, there were higher price pressures for transportation (+10.3% in annual terms vs +6.9% in April), housing and utilities (+2.5% vs +2.1% in April), recreation (+2.8% vs +1.2% in April) and restaurants and hotels (+8.1% vs +4.1% in April). In contrast, price pressures reduced for food and non-alcoholic beverages in May (+0.1% vs +1.3% in April). Meanwhile, consumer prices were up 3.5% in annual terms in May, following a 2.8% increase in the prior month. Finally, harmonized consumer prices were down 0.03% in May on a month-on-month basis, following a 1.67% rise in the prior month.

Panelist insight: EIU analysts commented on the short-term outlook: “We expect headline inflation to rise in the second half of 2026, as existing energy contracts expire and as second-round effects from the [Hormuz Strait] supply shock feed into other parts of the inflation basket, such as industrial goods, travel and hospitality, construction and agriculture. There will be some upward pressure on food prices amid higher input costs and as current inventories are depleted. We forecast that headline inflation will peak at about 4% around the turn of the year and ease lower only gradually in 2027, reflecting still-resilient wage and price pressures.”

How should you choose a forecaster if some are too optimistic while others are too pessimistic? FocusEconomics collects Dutch inflation projections for the next ten years from a panel of 20 analysts at the leading national, regional and global forecast institutions. These projections are then validated by our in-house team of economists and data analysts and averaged to provide one Consensus Forecast you can rely on for each indicator. By averaging all forecasts, upside and downside forecasting errors tend to cancel each other out, leading to the most reliable inflation forecast available for Dutch inflation.

Download one of our sample reports to visualize what a Consensus Forecast is and see our Dutch inflation projections.

Want to get access to the full dataset of Dutch inflation forecasts? Send an email to info@focus-economics.com.