Austria 2025: Relaunch of a Success Story
It is to be expected that in the aftermath of the financial crisis in Europe economic growth will be considerably lower than before and imbalances between countries will moderate only slowly. In Austria's neighbour countries economy will grow stronger but still be fragile and with large differences between them. The financial sector is under reconstruction. In respect of economic performance, Europe will lag behind China, India and the USA. More and more economic policy decisions will shift from individual countries to the international level. New countries will challenge the market of medium-scale technological products. Economic as well as social decisions will be relocated on the international level (climate, health, determination of standards and rules). In order to solve economic problems and joint environmental and social effects, the EU launched in 2012 a four-year term research programme called "WWWforEurope – Welfare, Wealth and Work for Europe" in which WIFO contributes together with 32 European partners. The findings can be partially used as a reference for solving the economic problems in Austria as well. This national research programme called "Austria 2025", to be processed between the beginning of 2015 and the end of 2016, puts the focus on eight areas which are analised in order to cope with economic challenges ahead, to show alternatives and to give precise economic policy advice.