Expenditure on Social Protection in 2001
In 2001, the economic situation was less favourable than in previous years: modest economic growth (+0.8 percent) was accompanied by high unemployment (6.1 percent). Nonetheless, the social expenditure ratio in Austria rose just slightly to 28.4 percent. Having reached its peak of 29.9 percent in 1994, it had been declining ever since. Throughout the second half of the 1990s it ranged between 28.3 percent (2000) and 28.9 percent (1999), so that the figure for 2001 corresponded to the trend of overall stagnation.