Unemployment in the Netherlands is on the rise, the OECD has said in a recent study. Growth is expected to pick up only slowly, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development wrote in its Economic Survey of the Netherlands 2012.

Looking further ahead, globalisation and the ageing of the labour force will hamper Dutch economic performance, the OECD predicts.

The Dutch economy will shrink 0.6 percent in 2012, and unemployment could rise to 5.3 percent this year and 5.7 in the next.

Consumer expenditure, one of the driving forces for a recovery, is expected to remain low. People are keeping their money in the bank as uncertainties about pensions, house prices and the European debt crisis continue.

(rk)

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