Description (en)
After the severe slump in economic development in 2009, the Austrian economy picked up in
2010 and expanded by 2.3% versus a year ago, after -3.8% in 2009. Austria profited, together
with Belgium and the Netherlands, from the dynamic economic growth position of Germany
(+3.7%).
The Austrian growth rate was clearly better than in the EU 27 (+1.9 percent) and the euroarea
(1.9 percent). A differentiation of core-periphery economic growth in Europe
developed in 2010 and became even more prominent in 2011. Fiscal problems and the debt
crisis resulted in an opening of the economic growth gap relative to the Southern European
countries, affecting Austria to some extent as Italy is a major trading partner. But a
comparatively strong economic growth performance of the Eastern European EU-MS and the
important trade linkages with them as well as the Near and Far East stabilised Austrian
economic growth.