ress: use embassy street address
telephone : [43] (1) 313-39
FAX: [43] (1) 310-0682

Flag description: three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white,
and red

Economy

Economy - overview: Austria has a well-developed market economy with a
sizable - but falling - proportion of nationalized industry, an
extensive social safety net, and a high standard of living. Austria's
economy is closely integrated with Germany and other EU members -
Austria joined the EU on 1 January 1995. Since the early 1980s, the
Austrian economy has experienced stable growth. EU membership has had
a positive impact on foreign investment and has helped to lower
inflation. In April 1996, the government passed a two-year austerity
budget - including cuts in social allowances, a freeze on civil
servants' wages, and new energy and capital gains taxes - designed to
bring the economy in line with the Maastricht criteria for membership
in the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). EMU convergence has
become a top priority for Austria. Despite Austria's generally
favorable prospects, the economy faces a number of medium-term
challenges; for example, fiscal tightening is constraining expected
growth, and unemployment is expected to increase.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $157.6 billion (1996 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 1.1% (1996 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $19,700 (1996 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 3%
industry: 27%
services : 70% (1994 est.)

Inflation rate - consumer price index: 1.8% (1996 est.)

Labor force:
total: 3.648 million (1996)
by occupation: services 56.4%, industry and crafts 35.4%, agriculture
and forestry 8.1%
note : an estimated 200,000 Austrians are employed in other European
countries; foreign laborers in Austria number 177,840, about 5% of
labor force (1988)

Unemployment rate: 6.2% (December 1996)

Budget:
revenues: $61.2 billion
expenditures: $71 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA

Industries: food, iron and steel, machines, textiles, chemicals,
electrical, paper and pulp, tourism, mining, motor vehicles

Industrial production growth rate: 0.6% (1996 est.)

Electricity - capacity: 17.43 million kW (1994)

Electricity - production: 56.5 billion kWh (1995)

Electricity - consumption per capita: 5,960 kWh (1995 est.)

Agriculture - products: grains, fruit, potatoes, sugar beets; cattle,
pigs, poultry; sawn wood

Exports:
total value: $55.5 b