Netherlands

The Dutch United Provinces declared their independence from Spain in 1579; during the 17th century, they became a leading seafaring and commercial power, with settlements and colonies around the world. After a 20-year French occupation, a Kingdom of the Netherlands was formed in 1815. In 1830 Belgium seceded and formed a separate kingdom. The Netherlands remained neutral in World War I, but suffered invasion and occupation by Germany in World War II. A modern, industrialized nation, the Netherlands is also a large exporter of agricultural products. The country was a founding member of NATO and the EEC (now the EU), and participated in the introduction of the euro in 1999.
==Economical characteristics==
* Currency: Euro (ISO code: EUR)
* Central bank discount rate: 3% (3 May 2009)
* Commercial banks lending rate: 10.01% (31 December 2009)
* is part of the Eurozone 
===Statistics===
Statistic / Year 	1999 	2000 	2001 	2002 	2003 	2004 	2005 	2006 	2007 	2008
GDP (million USD)World Bank. "Netherlands: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29. 	411 456	385 075	400 654	437 807	538 313	609 863	638 487	677 367	776 122	871 004
Govt. debt (% of GDP)World Bank. "Netherlands: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29. 	58.224 	52.066 	48.302 	49.318 	51.142 	52.144 	51.486 	45.612 	43.369 	
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)World Bank. "Netherlands: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29. 	40.826 	40.688 	39.775 	38.914 	38.647 	38.941 	39.264 	41.228 	40.768 	
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)World Bank. "Netherlands: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29.	40.460 	39.262 	39.682 	40.079 	41.118 	40.368 	39.268 	40.495 	40.285 	
Debt to revenue (years) 	1.426 	1.280 	1.214 	1.267 	1.323 	1.339 	1.311 	1.106 	1.064 	
==References==
Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.
==External links==
* Netherlands on Wikipedia
* Central bank of Netherlands
* BBC country profile
Category:Countries