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Bank Holidays in Netherlands for 2008, 2009

The Netherlands (is often called Holland) is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba in the Caribbean. The Netherlands is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy, located in Western Europe. It is bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east. Official languages – Dutch.

Main industries – agriculture-related industries, metal and engineering products, electronic machinery and equipment, chemicals, petroleum, construction, microelectronics, fishing. Trade organisations – EU, WTO and OECD. Leading foreign investors in the Netherlands (2005) are the United States with 18.5%, the United Kingdom 14.1%, Germany 12.0% and Belgium 10.1%.

Amsterdam – the capital city and the largest city of Netherlands. Famous cities – The Hague, Maastricht, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Eindhoven, Tilburg, Almere, Groningen, Breda, Nijmegen, Haarlem,

Human Development Index 2007/2008 rankings for Netherlands is 0.953 (9th, high) in High Human Development countries.

Currency – Euro (€), (EUR)( 1 Euro = 100 eurocent). Dutch Fiscal year – Calendar year. Gini coefficient – 32.6%. Inflation (CPI) – 1.3%. Public debt – $291.8 bn (48.7% of GDP, 2006). External debt – $1.645 trillion euro. from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Business Day" refers to Monday through Friday (Weekend: Saturday and Sunday). Time zone – CET (UTC+1). Summer (DST) – CEST (UTC+2).

* - The day before New Year Day (January 1) called "Old Year's Day", not New Year's Eve.

Netherlands Daylight Savings Time

Daylight Savings Time usually will begin the last Sunday of March, ending the last Sunday of October.