Austria in 2011

Austria in 2011

Area: 83,879 sq km (32,386 sq mi)
Population (2011 est.): 8,419,000
Capital: Vienna
Head of state: President Heinz Fischer
Head of government: Chancellor Werner Faymann

Though Austria continued to be governed in 2011 by a grand coalition made up of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and the Social Democrats (SPÖ), a fundamental shift in Austrian politics took place during the year. That largely occurred as a number of negative developments for the ÖVP left a political power vacuum that the right-wing Freedom Party (FPÖ) filled. In April, ÖVP leader Josef Pröll stepped down as party chairman and vice-chancellor because of severe illness. His resignation came at a time of crisis for the party owing to high-profile corruption scandals involving two ÖVP members of the European Parliament. The FPÖ, which had benefited most from the weak ÖVP, had surpassed it in recent opinion polls and ranked about even with the SPÖ.

The FPÖ continued to base its program in part on anti-immigrant sentiment, with the party’s leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, making highly provocative comments with respect to foreigners and especially Muslims. In particular, the FPÖ came out vehemently against a proposed program to teach Turkish as an elective that would be covered on the final school-leaving exams (Matura), claiming that such a plan would allow Turkish immigrants to pass their exams by doing less work than other students.

Relations between Austria and Turkey deteriorated during the year, with Turkey vetoing the candidacy of Austrian diplomat Ursula Plassnik for the secretary-generalship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. That veto was motivated by Turkey’s perception that Plassnik was opposed to Turkish EU membership. The Austrian government remained officially open to Turkey’s joining the EU, but Austrian public opinion was staunchly against it.

The Austrian government submitted a stability program to the European Commission in early 2011 designed to reduce the country’s deficit to less than 3% of GDP by 2013. To comply with the European System of Accounts, however, Austria revised its deficit for 2010 upward by one percentage point, to 4.6%, with knock-on effects for the 2011 government balance. While Austria’s deficit and debt levels were relatively low by EU standards, the government would have to implement further measures to hit its targets over the next few years. One such measure adopted in 2011 was a series of funding cuts for entities and individuals in the academic arena.

While Austria’s two largest banks passed the EU-wide stress tests in July 2011, the smaller Österreichische Volksbanken was one of only nine banks to fail the stress tests. Austrian banks’ exposure to the weaker euro-zone countries was modest, though Bank Austria was part of Italian UniCredit and therefore was affected by decreased confidence in Italy’s ability to service its debt.

On May 1 Austria opened its labour market to citizens of the eight central and eastern European states that had joined the EU in 2004. Workers from those countries helped to fill a void in skilled labour in certain sectors.

Austria’s GDP grew robustly in the first half of 2011 owing to strong domestic and foreign demand. Consumer and business confidence improved significantly in the first few months of the year, and unemployment fell. By year’s end, Austria boasted the lowest unemployment rate in the EU. Inflation increased forcefully in the first half of 2011, and, consequently, overall real wages fell. That dampened private-consumption growth, but improved competitiveness boosted Austrian exports. Exports recovered strongly in early 2011 as the country’s largest export market—Germany—staged a strong economic revival. Export growth slowed in the second half of the year, however, as Germany’s economy stalled and fiscal tightening hampered growth throughout the euro zone.

by: Megan Greene