The economic growth in the Netherlands is projected to increase to 3.3 percent in 2017, the highest growth in 10 years, the CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis announced on Wednesday.
In its figures the CPB expects a growth of 3.3 percent this year and a growth of 2.5 percent in 2018. For the first time since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2007, Dutch economic growth would turn out to be higher than 3 percent. In 2016 the growth was 2.2 percent and in 2015 it was 2.3 percent.
"Today we can celebrate that we have come out of the economic crisis and that we are the fastest growing economy in the western world," outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte told broadcaster NOS before continuing the negotiations for a new government in The Hague.
According to the CPB, the positive figures are mainly due to a very strong second quarter and favorable developments in Dutch exports. The new figures for 2017 and 2018 provide a more positive image than those in the June projections of the CPB, when a growth of 2.4 percent in 2017 and 2.0 percent in 2018 was projected.
The Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics CBS also published positive figures on the Dutch economy on Wednesday, with a growth of 1.5 percent in the second quarter of 2017 compared to the first quarter and a growth of 3.3 percent compared to the same period last year.
A quarterly growth this high only occurred twice before this century, according to the CBS. In addition, it is the 13th quarterly growth in a row, mainly driven by exports, investments and rising household consumption.
"The growth in the second quarter more than doubled the growth in Europe and the United States," outgoing Minister of Economic Affairs Henk Kamp reacted in a press release by his Ministry. "This is the result of successful entrepreneurship and hard work by employees in business and in the public sector. The successful cabinet policy has supported that. It is now up to the new cabinet to deal with the financial space wisely."
For the following years 2018 to 2021 the CPB expects an annual average growth of 1.8 percent. As a result of the continuing improvement in the economy, unemployment is projected to decrease rapidly, from 4.9 percent of the working force in 2017 to 4.3 percent in 2018. In addition, inflation will be stable at 1.3 percent in both 2017 and 2018, said CPB.
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