Dutch government reports lower deficit at 2.3% in 2013

The Dutch government budget deficit and debt in 2013 are lower than the first estimate published in March this year, the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) stated on Wednesday.
According to the latest estimates the Dutch government deficit was 2.3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2013. This is even below the European standard of 3 percent.
The debt for 2013 is also now lower at 68.6 percent instead of 73.5 percent of GDP. The EU debt norm is 60 percent.
The difference between the first and second calculation is the result of the availability of new data. In addition, new European rules were applied with among others not calculating income and expenditure of interest rate swaps in the deficit.