NEOS boss Beate Meinl-Reisinger expressed her “dismay” at the current budget forecast on Friday. “Yes, there is actually a fire on the roof,” she said at a press conference in Vienna. The government “lied against its better judgment” about this issue.
On Thursday, the Finance Ministry raised its deficit forecast for the 2024 budget to 3.3 percent of gross domestic product. The FPÖ and SPÖ also criticized it.
“Deliberate deception of the Austrians”
The economic researchers from Wifo and IHS also published their predictions on Friday morning. For NEOS the figures were “expected”. Perhaps surprisingly, the promise of a higher-than-expected deficit came “just four days after the election.” Meinl-Reisinger identified a “deliberate deception on the part of the Austrians”.
Meinl-Reisinger gave the black-green coalition a bad report. The government was “not honest” with the people. The Maastricht criteria have been “clearly and very clearly” exceeded. Economic growth cannot be predicted.
FPÖ Secretary General Michael Schnedlitz also criticized the government on Friday. “The deluge is behind me – the black-green coalition has done even more damage to the Austrians than previously thought,” it said in a broadcast. The timing of the publication shows “that the ÖVP and the Greens simply wanted to save themselves from the elections as best as possible.” In this context, Schnedlitz called for an extension of the brake on electricity prices.
“Austria needs a recovery program”
“The budget situation is as dramatic as everyone has known for months and as we have always said,” said SPÖ club president Philip Kucher. The shrinking economic performance is no surprise: “Austria needs a program for recovery, growth and employment.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance emphasized in a statement that predictions are difficult in a time characterized by uncertainty. The new forecast is mainly due to the weak economic situation in Austria and Europe after the years of crisis and thus to reduced tax revenues, the currently difficult to estimate consequences of the flood disaster and measures such as increasing the climate bonus.
The new developments – lower GDP than expected in the March forecast, lower tax revenues, new expenditure on floods, for example – could not have been anticipated in the previous forecasts. Revisions are also “something normal”.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
