The burst of the real estate bubble in the USA was a key factor of the financial market crisis. For banks, a slump in real estate prices is more dangerous than a stock market crash since real estate is the most important collateral for bank loans and house ownership is much more widespread...

The Austrian economy contracted by 2.6 percent during the first quarter, compared with the previous quarter, and by 3.5 percent, compared with the previous year. Owing to the downturn, the unemployment rate accelerated to 6.6 percent in May, exceeding the year-earlier level by 1½ percentage...

The differences in growth rates between EU countries during the period 1995-2005 can be attributed in part to the responsiveness of consumption and residential building to house price and interest rate changes. Rising real house prices in the UK, Ireland, the Scandinavian countries and Spain...

Austria's GDP is set to grow by 2.6 percent in 2006 and 2.1 percent in 2007. Exports, but also investment in machinery and equipment are stimulating business activity this year. The front-loading of purchases in Germany will have positive spill-over effects also in Austria in 2006. However, in...

The improvement of global business conditions is stimulating activity also in Europe in 2004. Driven by strong export growth, GDP in Austria is expected to grow by 1.9 percent, at the same pace as in the euro area. In 2005, while growth of world trade is set to lose momentum, domestic demand...

The Austrian economy expanded quite vigorously in the first quarter: +0.7 percent quarter-on-quarter, and +3.3 percent year-on-year. The growth rate was revised down slightly from the flash estimate released a month ago. Manufacturers' assessment of the production outlook for the coming months...

Economic activity in Austria will pick up only gradually in 2003. Business and consumer expectations are improving hesitantly, given the high risks in financial, real estate and energy markets. Growth of GDP is projected at 1¾ percent for 2003, following the less than 1 percent in 2002. The...

The Austrian economy grew by 1 percent quarter-on-quarter or 3.8 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, according to the WIFO estimate. Economic activity has thus continued to gather momentum – unlike on EU average. Investment and merchandise exports are the key drivers of the boom,...

Throughout the 1990s, the labour market has shown an unfavourable development, with unemployment noticeably on the increase. Until 1997, the main reasons underlying this development were a relatively low average rate of economic growth, the 1993 recession, and strong productivity increases in...

The EU structural indicators provide meaningful benchmarks for assessing progress towards meeting the Lisbon objectives. However, the ranking of countries according to such unweighted indicators makes little sense. While Austria fares relatively well at the level of most EU key indicators, its...