Dutch economy to continue to grow; Purchase power increase slows

In the coming years the Dutch economy will continue to grow and the government will again have billions of euros in budget surplus, but the growth in purchasing power will slow, according to the Dutch central planning office CPB's latest estimate, NOS reports.

Last year the Dutch government managed a budget surplus of 2.9 billion euros, the first surplus since 2008, Statistics Netherlands announced on Friday. That surplus amounted to 0.4 percent of the budget.

If policies remain unchanged, the budget surplus will increase this year to 0.5 percent and next year to 0.8 percent. In 2012 the surplus will run up to 1.3 percent, which amounts to some 11 billion euros.

Dutch households have somewhat less to look forward to, according to CPB. Growth in purchasing power will slow, mainly due to increasing prices. The CPB expects inflation to increase to 1.6 percent this year. Purchasing power will increase by only 0.1 percent this year and 0.3 percent next year.

These figures are also based on the assumption that government policy will remain unchanged. The new government may decide to take measures to increase purchasing power more.