Part of government expenditure on Covid-19 support deferred until 2021
The government is expected to spend a total of €31.4 billion in 2020 on mitigating the consequences of the coronavirus crisis. Following the decision to defer part of this expenditure to 2021, this figure is lower than the amount projected either in July (viz. €39.6 billion) or in October (viz. €34.1 billion). If the amount of spending budgeted for next year is taken into account, the total value of Covid-19 support comes to €45.8 billion. This figure does not include the €3.7 billion package of measures announced by the government on 9 December.
These are the findings reached by the Netherlands Court of Audit in the latest update (10 December) of its ‘Coronavirus Account’. The Dutch government has now taken a total of 179 support measures, with the bulk of the money going towards socio-economic measures, i.e. the various furlough schemes. The Court’s interactive Coronavirus Account dashboard contains full information (in Dutch) on all the measures.