The Netherlands is ‘slowly emerging from the economic doldrums’ but the recovery in 2013 and 2014 will be modest as domestic demand remains weak, the European Commission said in its autumn growth forecast on Wednesday.

Spending by consumers has fallen for six successive quarters and is now back at 2003 levels, the report says.
As a whole, the Dutch economy will shrink by 0.3% this year, the commission said. Earlier it had forecast a decline of 0.9%.
Growth next year will be around 0.3%, which is well down on the 0.7% predicted by the commission in its spring forecasts.
The forecasts do not take into account the likely effect of the new government’s policies.