After the double-dip recession starting in 2008, the European construction sector returned to growth in 2014. With an average rate of +1.0 percent across all 19 Euroconstruct member countries, the recovery is not very strong but can be found in almost all countries. Despite the sluggish economic...

Throughout 2013, the construction industry suffered from the heavy pressure exerted by imbalances in the real estate markets. Civil engineering was affected in particular by restricted public budgets. Altogether, overall construction volumes declined by 3.0 percent. For 2014, demand in general...

According to the results of WIFO's Spring 2013 Investment Survey, investment in manufacturing expressed in current prices is expected to increase by 6.5 percent in 2013. However, the increase is highly uneven across industry groups. The intermediate goods industry plans to cut its investments by...

In 2013, Austria's economy grew by just 0.4 percent, the slowest growth rate since the recession of 2008-09 when overall production had shrunk by 3.8 percent. Both the investment volume and private household consumption declined in real terms. Unemployment rose sharply to a new height of 7.6...

Gross value added grew at a slow rate everywhere in Austria, due to the fact that exports, the traditional drivers of growth, failed as propellant. The brightening of national and international prospects in the second half of the year helped industrial regions, gaining them a slight growth edge...

Public Private Partnership (PPP) refers to a co-operation between public sector and private companies. PPP schemes aim to tap the financial power, specific know-how and efficiency of the private sector for the benefit of public projects. Auditing reports and interviews served as sources to...

Austria's GDP grew by just 0.3 percent in 2014, making for a sluggish economy for the third year in a row. Causes for the sluggishness were not just continued investment reticence on the part of businesses and muted expenditure on the part of private households but also the lack of any strong...

Surprisingly manufacturers expect to boost their investments substantially in 2015. Considering the weak recovery and an economic situation that has hardly improved at all it is unlikely that their expectations will come true. In 2014, manufacturers raised their investments by 10 percent,...