The Netherlands remains financially closely intertwined with other countries

The Dutch economy is highly interconnected on the global stage, as evidenced by the substantial investments and loans made by the Netherlands abroad. These are known as claims. However, the Netherlands also has debts to other countries, or foreign companies have invested money in the Netherlands. These are known as liabilities.

Since the beginning of this year, the Netherlands’ foreign assets have increased to €10,374 billion (+ €225 billion) and liabilities have risen to €9,806 billion (+ €353 billion). These increases can mainly be attributed to the banking sector and pension funds, through larger derivative positions and deposits, for instance. Net external assets – essentially, foreign debt owed to the Netherlands – thus reached €568 billion in the third quarter of 2025.  

In absolute terms, countries with larger economies can have even larger assets and liabilities, but in relation to gross domestic product (GDP), few countries surpass the Netherlands. At the end of 2024, for instance, the total value of Dutch assets abroad, according to figures from the IMF, was 853% of GDP, more than double that of Belgium (396%) and Germany (309%), the Netherlands’ closest neighbours.

Foreign countries invest heavily in Dutch listed multinationals

One of the reasons why the Netherlands has many claims on other countries can be found in the substantial investments of Dutch pension funds, insurers and investment funds in particular in foreign stocks and bonds. The total amount of foreign investments in the third quarter of 2025 came to €1,674 billion.

Remarkably, other countries invest even more in Dutch securities. This is because the Netherlands has many listed multinationals, such as ASML and Adyen, which foreign investors favour. Consequently, the contribution of portfolio investments to Dutch external assets is negative, meaning that – purely in terms of stocks and bonds – the Netherlands owes more to other countries than the other way round.

This net securities debt is offset by the fact that Dutch companies make direct investments in foreign companies more often than the other way around. In a direct investment, a company owns at least 10% of another company. In this case, these are mainly direct investments by multinationals listed on the Dutch stock exchange.

Some of these multinationals hardly engage in any business activities in the Netherlands, although shareholder meetings are held here. Examples include Universal Music Group and Prosus. The business activities of these multinationals mainly take place at their subsidiaries abroad. This is reflected in external assets as a direct investment from the Netherlands-based multinational in the foreign subsidiaries.

More information

• Table 12.12: Net external assets
• Table 12.1: Balance of payments
• Dashboard: External assets