Last year the Dutch government made 2.4 billion euros from natural gas extraction - almost 3 billion euros less than in 2015 and the lowest level since 1975, according to figures released by Statistics Netherlands on Wednesday.
The decrease can partly be attributed to decreased gas extraction due to the risk of earthquakes, according to the statistics office. Lower gas prices also played a role - last year the producer prices were halved compared to 2013.
After three years of lower gas and electricity prices, the Netherlands can expect an increase in their energy bill next year, according to research by comparison site ricewise.nl. Next year the average household with variable energy can expect to pay 20 euros per year more, NOS reports.
Pricewise.nl based its calculations on a survey of energy companies Essent, Eneco and Nuon as well as energy suppliers and purchasers.
A report produced by LeasePlan bank shows that car ownership is costlier in the Netherlands than any of the ten other European countries compared in the study. The bank analyzed the cost of C-segment compact car ownership, assuming an average of 20,000 kilometers of annual driving over a three year period.
Inflation in the Netherlands showed a very slight increase last month. Statistics Netherlands' Consumer Price Index marked inflation at 0.7 percent in October, compared to the 0.6 percent in September.
The reduction in gas extraction in Groningen as well as the low gas price will result in 1.5 to 2 billion euros less for the Dutch treasury this year. This is according to Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem (Finance, PvdA) who discussed the matter on the talk show Pauw last night.
GroenLinks thinks that the gas price should increase, RTL Nieuws reports. According to the party, that is the only way to compensate for the cost of reducing the gas production.
