Economic growth starts to speed up

Tuesday 15 December 2009

The Dutch economy is picking up faster than had been expected, bolstered by family spending and better than expected employment figures, the government's macro-economic think tank CPB said on Tuesday.

The CPB now says the economy will grow 1.5% next year, compared with a forecast of zero growth in September and a contraction of 0.5% in June.

Last week, the central bank said it expected the economy to grow by 0.7% next year. ING bank economists have also said the economy will pick up next year. And in November, the national statistics office CBS said the recession was officially over.

Trade

'As usual, it is the recovery in exports which is driving the cyclical upswing in the economy,' the CPB said. 'The projected GDP growth is entirely due to exports... which are more or less in line with movements in world trade.'

In reaction to the new forecast, social affairs minister Piet Hein Donner warned the growth in trade is in sectors where competition has intensified. 'We must make sure we do not have growth without an increase in jobs,' he was quoted as saying in the Financieele Dagblad.

Unemployment is around 5% this year and will rise to around 6.5% next year, the CPB says.

Economic affairs minister Maria van der Hoeven warns that the recovery is still very fragile and said it largely depends on the measures introduced by the government which will be phased out next year.

© DutchNews.nl

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