The European Commission is to include the Netherlands in its latest batch of in-depth reports on countries with potential macro-economic imbalances.

The Commission said in a statement ‘it would be useful to take a closer look at macro-economic developments in Malta and the Netherlands to further examine potential risks’.
In particular in the Netherlands ‘there is a need to investigate more in-depth the potential risks stemming from a very elevated level of private sector debt in combination with high house prices’, the Commission said.
The Dutch mortgage debt currently outstrips GDP but house values are falling and the housing market is in crisis.
The aim of the survey, known as an MIP, is to ‘identify potential risks early on, prevent the emergence of harmful imbalances and correct the imbalances that are already in place’.
Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Hungary, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Britain already fall under the MIP programme.