The cash earnings of Austrian manufacturing, estimated by WIFO at 10.3 percent of the turnover in 2008, were close to their long-term average. During the last years, i.a., due to rising cash flows, the equity ratio rose to 38.5 percent in 2007, exceeding for the first time the European average...

The current crisis makes for the most difficult macro-economic environment for fiscal policy since the Second World War. The ratio of the general government deficit and of government debt to GDP each rise markedly above the "Maastricht" reference value. The structural (cyclically-adjusted)...