The shortage of labour in the Netherlands will have an impact on economic growth next year, according to a new report by Rabobank economists.

Rabobank says that while growth will continue, it will be hit by both the shortage of workers and falling growth rates abroad. The Dutch economy will grow by 1.9% next year and 1.7% in 2020, the economists say. This year they put growth at 2.6%.

In particular the shortage of workers is having an effect on the construction sector and fewer new homes are being built.

Now the time is right for the government to invest and make a serious effort to boost sustainability, such as the introduction of a tax on carbon dioxide emissions, the economists say.

‘Invest in productivity,’ chief economist Menno Middeldorp told broadcaster NOS. ‘Delaying decisions reduces the risk that difficult decisions will have to be taken in the future, under more difficult economic circumstances.’

ABN Amro said on Monday it is also revising down its economic growth forecast next year, from 2.5% to 2%. It, too, puts economic growth this year at 2.6%.

Finance minister Wopke Hoekstra said on Friday that the government is forecasting growth of 2.6% next year ‘but the Rabobank figures show a lower figure’.

The government’s own macro-economic agency CPB will publish its growth figures next Wednesday.