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...

This paper aims to identify different growth patterns in the EU which led to the emergence of macroeconomic imbalances. It provides a detailed statistical picture of the evolution of various macroeconomic variables on the demand as well as on the supply side, before, in and after the financial...

This paper assesses whether or to what extent the macroeconomic imbalances, which emerged in the ‘North’ and ‘South’ of the European Monetary Union before the financial and economic crisis of 2008/09, are symmetric. Firstly, we calculate bilateral exports and imports between all EU...

Macroeconomic imbalances in the EMU are at the heart of the current crisis. A widely popular explanation for the high current account deficits in the Southern European countries is that they lack a large, competitive and export-oriented industrial sector. The paper tests the hypothesis that...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...