Minister Zalm verklaart dat Nederland zich zal houden aan het Stabiliteitspact (en)

Dutch Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm reiterated yesterday that the Netherlands will not break the EU stability and growth pact.

Speaking in the Dutch parliament, Mr Zalm stated that the most recent figures show that the Dutch budget deficit in 2003 will not hit the three percent ceiling allowed by the EU stability pact, the rules that underpin the euro currency.

Mr Zalm said, according to Dutch press agency ANP, that the newest figures even projected a deficit of less than the 2.7 percent predicted earlier by the finance ministry.

He stressed that in any case, he was not prepared to accept a deficit above three percent.

With his statements, Mr Zalm confirmed his strong dismissal of contradicting figures by the CPB (Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis) published on 4 December.

The CPB projected a Dutch deficit of 3.25 percent. This would imply that the Netherlands, one of the strongest critics of Germany and France for their non-compliance with the stability pact, would now break the pact itself.

The Dutch finance ministry dismissed the CPB figures as `nonsense' on the day they were published.