The Dutch national debt is at its highest level due to the rescue packages the government has given to the financial sector to help it cope with the worldwide credit crisis, reports the NRC on Wednesday.

The national debt has risen 29% to €283bn in the last two months, the paper says. In September when the government presented its budget for next year, the cabinet believed national debt would be at its lowest level since records were kept.
At the time finance minister Wouter Bos calculated that debt as a percentage of gross national income would fall to 36% by the end of the cabinet term, which would make it the lowest since 1814. The current level is at around 48%, says the NRC.
Bos has repeatedly said that the country’s spending plans for 2009 do not need to be revised and that the rescue packages given to financial institutions (in total €13.75 bn) fall outside the normal budget.