According to the Center for European Economic Research (ZEW), Austria as a location is barely keeping up with world leaders, dropping from ninth to thirteenth in the most recent ranking. The same applies to our most important trading partner, Germany, which is now only in 18th place (previously: 14th place). The US, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland and Denmark are considered the best locations. Italy is 21st and last.
“Japan and Sweden showed strong improvements, Austria and the Netherlands posted large losses,” ZEW said on Tuesday. “After the corona pandemic had already caused a temporary deep cut, the Russian offensive war in Ukraine and the failure of Russian energy imports for Europe created a supply shock with long-term effects. This shock is highly asymmetric internationally and particularly affects European countries that were heavily dependent on Russian gas, such as Germany, Austria or the Eastern European EU member states.
Only 17th place in the subcategory “Country Index Family Businesses”
Particularly on the sub-themes of the latest edition of the “Country Index for Family Businesses”, such as labor costs, productivity, human capital, regulation and energy, Austria performs particularly poorly and ranks only 17th. When it comes to taxes, infrastructure and institutions, it still ranks 8th and when it comes to financing, it just barely makes the top ten with a 10th place. Germany only ranks 20th when it comes to taxes. Slovakia leads here with some distance ahead of the Czech Republic and Poland.
The top ten at a glance
- United States
- You have
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Denmark
- Ireland
- Great Britain
- Finland
- The Netherlands
- Poland
Italy last, Germany only in 18th place
In the Munich Foundation’s biennial survey, family businesses appear behind Poland, but ahead of Austria, the Czech Republic and Belgium. Positions 14 to 21 are occupied by Portugal, Slovakia, Japan, France, Germany, Hungary, Spain and Italy.
The country index is calculated as the weighted average of six sub-indices: taxation, labour, regulation, finance, infrastructure and investment, and energy. It can take point values between 0 and 100.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
