CPB: Ukraine could disrupt growth
Laura Geest, the Director of the Central Bureau for Planning CPB has said that the unrest in Ukraine could may well disrupt the economic recovery of the Netherlands.
"If there would be a delay in the global trade and the oil and gas prices increase by ten percent, then the growth for 2014 and 2015 will drop to 0,25 percent," she said today. CPB predicts for now that the economy will grow by 0.75% this year and 1.75 % next year. Economic growth in the Netherlands is predicted at 0.25% slower than in the rest of the eurozone, in 2014 and 2015. Van Geest expects that employment opportunities will increase in 2015. "First the production will recover and then it will take a little while, but employers will start hiring employees again. That is a normal patterns when an economy recovers," she said. Next year consumer expenditure is expected to increase again, with about 0.5 percent. Purchasing power is regaining strength this year already: 1.5 percent. In 2015 it will increase by another 0.25 percent.
