The Dutch budget deficit reached 5.3% last year, not 5.1% as calculated earlier, the finance ministry said on Monday evening.

The change is notable, says the Financieele Dagblad, because only last week the government’s macro-economic planning unit CPB put last year’s deficit at 4.5%. The deficit will reach 6.1% this year and drop to 4.7% in 2011, the organisation said. Those figures are still preliminary.
Lower than expected tax and premium income and higher spending on healthcare are behind the change, the ministry said in a statement.