The Dutch budget deficit is better than thought thanks to new methods of calculating key economic indicators now being used by national statistics office CBS.

The change in methodology is due to European guidelines which will be compulsory for all EU member states from September.

The recalculations show the budget deficit hit 2.3% last year, which is below the earlier estimation of 2.5%. In addition, the economy only contracted by 0.6% in the first quarter of this year, not 1.4% as stated on May 15.

The changes involve giving less weight to natural gas production and taking recent global economic trends – such as the rise in ICT – into account.

In addition, new figures on the hospitality industry and business services have also had an impact. Both sectors performed better than expected, the CBS said.