Prime minister Mark Rutte told parliament on Wednesday afternoon he is constantly looking for ways of ‘injecting extra oxygen into the economy’.

He was speaking during a parliamentary debate on the government’s plan to cut an extra €6bn from the budget for 2014.

‘We are working on measures that cost no or little money to add impetus to the economy,’ he said.

Rutte was following the lead set by Labour party leader Diederik Samsom in an interview in Tuesday’s Volkskrant. In the interview, Samsom said the billions of euros held by private individuals, banks, investors and pension funds must be made to work to get the economy rolling again.

‘Only making savings is no longer an option,’ Samsom told the paper.

Rutte added to his remarks that the new savings the government must make should be divided in a ‘decent way’ across the whole of society. ‘Vulnerable people must be protected as much as possible without giving the impression that not everyone will feel the pain,’ he said.