Netherlands wealth grows to €3.7 trillion

Despite a few difficult years during and following the financial crisis, the Netherlands' national wealth continued to grow and is currently standing at a staggering 3.7 trillion euros, according to figures Statistics Netherlands released on Thursday. That is 3.7 with eleven zeros. The Netherlands' national wealth is all the financial assets and material possessions - such as homes, businesses, land, buildings, machinery etc. - of households, companies and the government added together, minus their debts. According to Statistics Netherlands, in 2008 the Netherlands wealth was about 3.4 trillion euros. And in the years that followed, 292 billion euros were added to it, amounting to 3.7 trillion euros at the end of 2014. The growth can largely be attributed to pension funds and insurers, according to the statistics office. Since 2008 their wealth grew with more than 615 billion euros to 1.7 trillion euros. The extremely low interest rates in recent years forced the funds and insurers to increase their wealth with billions of euros in order to meet their future obligations.