AMSTERDAM, March 3 (Reuters) - The Dutch economy will pick up growth this year and next, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)said on Thursday, issuing forecasts roughly in line with the country's own.
But the OECD warned that pricey loans to small business and a lack of immigrant integration could pose economic headwinds.
In its regular survey of the Dutch economy, the Paris-based organisation said the Dutch economy will grow 1.7 percent this year and 2.1 percent in 2017, the latter slightly behind the Dutch central bank's December forecast of 2.2 percent growth in 2017.
The budget deficit would also remain on a declining path amid a solid economic recovery, coming in at 1.9 percent this year and 1.5 percent the next.
The forecasts are positive news for the governing coalition, which is banking on being rewarded for a recovery in next year's elections after years of austerity that have fueled support for populist right-wing parties.
Lending to small and medium enterprises were another constraint on growth, with 90 percent of small business loans coming from just three banks, and loans relatively expensive. New lenders should be encouraged to enter the market by streamlining approval processes, the OECD said.
The think tank warned that a failure to adequately integrate immigrants and a lack of competition in the market for small business lending could hurt growth.
There was a gap of 15 percent between the employment rate for the native-born and the foreign-born population, the largest such gap in the OECD, a problem that could become more severe as the number of asylum seekers entering the country rises amid unprecedented inflows of migrants from the Middle East.
The inflow, which reached nearly 60,000 asylum applicants in 2015, imposed costs of around 1 billion euros, or 0.15 percent of GDP.
"The impact on GDP per capita will depend on the success of labour market integration and the skills of refugees," the OECD said.
(Reporting By Thomas Escritt; Editing by Anthony Deutsch/Jeremy Gaunt)