National deficit leaps by €5 billion

The national deficit went up to €9.4 billion in the first half of 2014. This is €5.1 billion higher than the same period last year, the Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS). According to the CBS, this rise is because telecom frequency auctions, which started in 2013, are now dropping away. Government income dropped with €0.6 billion in the first half of 2014, compared to the same period last year. Spending, however, went up with €4.5 billion, creating the hike in the national deficit. The drop in national income from lower natural gas and dividend income amounted to €3.7 billion. Incomes from taxes and social premiums rose with €3.3 billion. The incomes from the VAT, corporate tax and dividend tax rose strongly, the CBS states. The introduction of the landlord tax and the one-time resolution tax for banks in 2014 also provided income. Spending, however, was €4.5 billion higher in the first half of this year compared to last year. The CBS puts this down to the one-time income of €3.8 billion from the telecom frequency auction in 2013, which have been noted as negative spending, as per international agreements. The standings of the national deficit from July 2013 to June 2014 comes to 3.0 percent of the GDP. At the end of March 2015, the CBS will publish the deficit over the entirety of 2014, which will reveal how The Netherlands is performing over the European Monetary Union (EMU) norm.