Federal Budget Proposal 2007-08: Between Consolidation and Future-Oriented Expenditure

Austria's budget policy continues to face challenges that are difficult to reconcile. On the one hand the additional revenues and the expenditure savings in the wake of the economic upswing should be used for the consolidation of the public budgets. On the other, Austria still has to confront deficits in some areas of key importance for the development of the long-term growth path (in particular education, research and development, infrastructure). The federal budget proposal 2007-08 is a compromise between these conflicting requirements. It combines a slower budget consolidation than the dynamic economic situation would allow with slight increases in spending for education, research, science, infrastructure and social protection.