The ÖVP-led Finance Ministry increased its deficit forecast for the 2024 budget to 3.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) just days after the National Council elections. This is above the Maastricht limit of three percent.
The reasons for this are a lack of economic recovery, the difficult to estimate consequences of the flood disaster and the increase in the climate bonus, the department said on Thursday. In March the deficit expectation was 2.9 percent.
Industry not very surprised
Meanwhile, the Budget Council has been talking about a deficit of 3.4 percent of GDP for some time. The economic research institutes IHS and Wifo also did not assume that Austria would fall below three percent. Tomorrow, Friday, the two institutes will also announce their autumn economic forecast.
According to the Ministry of Finance forecast, the debt ratio now stands at 79.3 percent of GDP, slightly above the 2023 level (77.8 percent). It is now assumed that GDP will be significantly lower in 2024, partly due to a worsening expected economic situation for 2024.
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.
