The introduction of an auction system for the issuance of government bonds has brought the Austrian bond market closer to international standards. However, when issue prices are compared to theoretical prices derived from the secondary market, some issues show significant "overpricing". This...

With a GDP ratio of 36 percent indebtedness of Austrian private households is relatively low when compared with other OECD countries. Still, a total of AS 721 billion at the end of 1991 no longer allows to neglect issues related to debt accumulation. From a macroeconomic point of view, credit...

Despite lively overall economic activity the expansion of the Austrian private insurance sector in 1990 trailed GDP growth. Sluggishness, while extending to all branches of business, concentrated on life insurance whose annual growth rate was cut in half. The downward trend should have bottomed...

Growth of premium revenues in the Austrian insurance industry accelerated in 1991 and 1992, despite the cyclical slowdown of overall economic activity. Life insurance premium revenues stagnated in 1991, but picked up strongly in the following year. Damage ratios increased considerably in 1991...

Upon Austria's entry into Stage Three of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB) took on new tasks in the field of payment systems. January 4, 1999, marked the launch of the cross-border real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system TARGET. This system, in which...