Netherlands

The duration of the economic upturn broke a 50-year record in 2000. Real gross domestic production expanded by nearly 3.9%. Tension on the labour market, which is suffering from labour shortages, increased, and the unemployment rate sank to an annualized 2.6%. This meant there was not only full but overfull employment. In 2001 real GDP should increase by 3%, and unemployment at 2½% will remain low.