According to a study by the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB), state aid for corona not only supported domestic companies, but also helped build significant financial buffers. During the pandemic, business assets grew by 4.4 percent, more than in the year before Corona. Bank balances and cash reserves even increased by 17.5 percent.
Equity also increased by 7.5 percent in 2020, the newspaper ‘Der Standard’ reported on Monday. The figures would have been drawn by all sectors. Sectors that were hit hard by the corona crisis, such as tourism or gastronomy, were also left with a larger financial buffer. The study evaluated 122,000 company balance sheets and analyzed bank data.
Criticism of overfunding
The results are remarkable as business revenues in many sectors have fallen as a result of the lockdowns. It was therefore to be expected that the deposits and equity of the companies would decrease. The fact that this was not the case is due to state aid. The study argues that it is doubtful that the state aid served to keep endangered companies alive and save jobs, the Standard writes.
Over-funding of companies by corona aid has already been criticized from various quarters, including the Court in its report on the Covid-19 Federal Financing Agency (COFAG) of a “significant potential for over-funding”. A total of 47 billion euros in state aid for corona has been distributed in Austria since the start of the pandemic.
NEOS: “Irresponsible destruction of taxpayers’ money”
The NEOS and the SPÖ used the National Bank’s investigation to criticize the corona policy of the turquoise-green government. The government’s watering can measures are “an irresponsible waste of taxpayers’ money,” said NEOS spokeswoman Karin Doppelbauer.
The SPÖ also sees a “systematic overfinancing” at the expense of the taxpayer. “The SPÖ has repeatedly pointed out that the COVID funding was not transparent and was misdistributed, which allowed some, especially large companies, to receive excessive funding,” said SPÖ spokesman Christoph Matznetter. Companies that were overfinanced and made a profit had to pay back the money in the form of a special levy.
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.
