Austria's budget deficit in 2011 down to 2.6%, debt remains at 72%

[Tender Branson]

Austria's 2011 budget deficit at 2.6 percent, below EU 3-percent limit

VIENNA (AP) -- Austria's government statistics agency says the country's budget deficit last year was at 2.6 percent — less than expected and below the 3-percent EU limit.

The deficit of 7.8 billion euros ($10.4 billion) is under the 3.3 percent forecast by the government in January and also below the 4.5 percent deficit for 2010.

The agency said Thursday that Austria's debt for last year was at 217.4 billion euros, (almost $290 billion), or 72 percent of the country's gross national product.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/austrias-2011-budget-deficit-2-100404836.html

http://www.statistik.at/web_en/statistics/Public_finance_taxes/maastricht_edp_indicators/government_deficit/033480.html

http://www.statistik.at/web_en/statistics/Public_finance_taxes/maastricht_edp_indicators/government_debt/033483.html

[I left.]

Isn't Germany's around 1% these days? Congratulations, though...I wish more Euro countries had Austrian economic policies.

[Democratic Hawk]

Has Austria managed to do this without unemployment rising considerably? Unemployment concerns me more than deficits

[I left.]

Has Austria managed to do this without unemployment rising considerably? Unemployment concerns me more than deficits

Austria and Germany both have some of the lowest unemployment in the Western world and at least in Germany's case, the lowest it's been in many years.

More countries need to govern like the Germanic area

[Tender Branson]

Has Austria managed to do this without unemployment rising considerably? Unemployment concerns me more than deficits

Austria and Germany both have some of the lowest unemployment in the Western world and at least in Germany's case, the lowest it's been in many years.

More countries need to govern like the Germanic area

"Germanic area" of course means this:



Not just Germany+Austria ...

...

As for Democratic Hawk:

Austria has a 4% unemployment rate right now, which is the lowest in the EU. Not only that, employment growth is very strong. Every year, about 50.000 to 70.000 jobs are added, which means annual job growth of about 1.5% each year. It also means that Austria has record employment at the moment.

As for Franzl:

"Isn't Germany's around 1% these days?"

Yes, I think Germany had a 1% deficit in 2011. But you also have 85% debt ...

[Perun17]

Has Austria managed to do this without unemployment rising considerably? Unemployment concerns me more than deficits

Austria and Germany both have some of the lowest unemployment in the Western world and at least in Germany's case, the lowest it's been in many years.

More countries need to govern like the Germanic area

Well the official numbers claim that - but it all depends on how you count.
The unofficial numbers state that unemployment in Austria and Germany is two to three times higher than the official numbers would suggest.

[Tender Branson]

Has Austria managed to do this without unemployment rising considerably? Unemployment concerns me more than deficits

Austria and Germany both have some of the lowest unemployment in the Western world and at least in Germany's case, the lowest it's been in many years.

More countries need to govern like the Germanic area

Well the official numbers claim that - but it all depends on how you count.
The unofficial numbers state that unemployment in Austria and Germany is two to three times higher than the official numbers would suggest.

Welcome Perun ...

Where are you from ?

As for your post: That's likely, but stuff like this with manipulating the statistics happens in almost any country.

The US would then have unemployment of about 20% instead of 8%, Germany would have 10-15%, Austria 8% and Greece, Spain etc. probably 30-40%.

So we have to go with the official statistics by EUROSTAT which apply the same measure from the ILO/OECD in all countries - and it's comparable.