The budget deficit is set to fall to 3.5% next year, down from 6% this year, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Thursday, without quoting direct sources.

Higher economic growth and an end to temporary spending on support for industry are behind the drop, the paper says.
Last week, caretaker finance minister Jan Kees de Jager hinted that the government’s finances had improved sharply. And new calculations from the government’s macro-economic planning agency has led insiders in The Hague to assume the deficit will drop to 3.5%, the paper says.
In its last prognosis, the CPB put the deficit for 2011 at 4.9%.
The EU wants all member states to have reduced their deficits to under 3% by 2013.
The government’s 2011 spending plans have already been agreed by the outgoing government and include €3.2bn worth of spending cuts.