Director of the Financial Ombudsman, Gerald Zmuegg, criticizes the public discussion surrounding KTM’s bankruptcy: “In my opinion, it is already heading towards business bashing of the worst kind. The fact is that KTM will have grown again in terms of turnover by 2023. The fact is that at KTM the average salary per employee has increased by 14,000 euros between 2020 and 2023. The fact is that the profit in 2023 was about 96 million euros.”
It is therefore clear to the finance professional that the responsibility for KTM’s bankruptcy would also lie with those responsible for the economic policies of the past twenty years. The same applies to management and employees: “And making Pierer the scapegoat is just annoying to me. Because it simply plays on the basest instincts of entrepreneurial bashing. That’s just not right. You have to accept top performers and entrepreneurs.” In addition to KTM, smaller and medium-sized companies (‘SMEs’) are also having a hard time at the moment: ‘We have one of the dumbest energy policies in existence in all of Europe. Together with Germany we are merely wrong administrators in energy policy. And all other countries have sensible energy policies.”
Austria and North Korea
But in general there is also a deplorable situation for the economy in this country. Zmuegg: “We have nonsense like GDPR or the Supply Chain Act that no one can implement. The whole world laughs at us because we bureaucratize ourselves. And the companies will leave Austria because the location policy is a catastrophe. I would say it a bit exaggerated: the only location that is even less attractive in terms of growth than Austria is currently North Korea, as an entrepreneur told me yesterday. And there is some truth in it. And I assume it’s not the entrepreneurs who have forgotten how to actually do business over the past fifteen years. Because negative selection in politics certainly has more impact here.”
Economically illiterate
Whether the term ‘negative selection’ refers to the people who are currently active in politics? “Yes, of course. We have the worst political staff. You must also say that among the economically illiterate people who discuss here, there are many blind people who talk about color.” The economy is currently going through a very difficult phase, and the wave of bankruptcies has not yet been prevented, as Finance Minister Brunner has always said, but has actually gone backwards. But entrepreneurs are generally fighters and are resisting it.
“The fact is: we are only seeing the beginning of the wave of insolvencies. That means we are now at the bottom and it is building up quite slowly. In 2025 we will experience a vale of tears that will be unparalleled.” However, the entrepreneurs themselves would assess the current situation more positively than the current situation. Zmuegg: “And that’s what it takes. Because politics cannot solve the problems. Whatever government comes in.”
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.
