The latest forecasts for Austrian economic growth in 2016 and 2017 show slight downward revisions, as made by the country's two leading economic research institutes on Thursday.
The Austrian Institute of Economic Research and the Institute for Advanced Studies both made 0.1 percentage point reductions in their forecasts for the two years. The Austrian Institute of Economic Research now expects the country's GDP growth at 1.6 percent for each of the two years, and the Institute for Advanced Studies puts the annual growth rate at 1.5 percent.
The increased expenditure on the care of refugees and asylum seekers was again cited as one of the factors behind the expected growth in 2016, along with tax reforms implemented at the beginning of this year that are to improve household income and lead to higher consumption.
The Austrian Institute of Economic Research said it did not however expect either of these two factors to provide further stimulus in 2017. On the negative side, unemployment is expected to continue to rise until 2017, though will not pass the 10 percent mark, as the Austrian Institute of Economic Research had feared it would late last year.
Latest comments