According to experts, the lack of a federal government has actually been a good thing for the economy. Because the federal government has now spent more than a year dealing only with current matters and was unable to pass measures involving new spending, the economy has grown. Spending has remained constant, while growth has brought in new income from taxes. Interest rates, meanwhile, have remained more or less steady.

One of the main benefits has been the growth in jobs: Last year, 27,000 new jobs were created, while job growth in the coming five years is expected to reach 46,000 jobs a year, with only 10,000 a year in the part-time and low-pay sectors associated with service-checks (where the government picks up a sizeable part of the tab). This year the number of people in work will account for 70% of the population of working age – the rest are accounted for by unemployment, invalidity, early retirement and those who have never worked and do not claim benefits.

However, warns the Planning Bureau, 2012 is likely to see a turn-around in the situation. Any new government will once more open the tap of new spending, which has been closed since mid-2010. The government will also take in less because of an increase in the amount of tax relief businesses are able to claim on investments from their own capital. In 2009 they could deduct 4.3% from their tax bill; this year it was 3.8%.

For the coming years, the caretaker government has not had the mandate to set new rates, so the higher market rate is assumed to apply. That would bring in €700 million less in corporation tax and add 0.2% to the government's debt burden – rising from 3.4% to 3.6% as a proportion of GDP.