Rising Cost of Living and Risk of Poverty in Austria

The article deals with the impact of rising living costs (projected annual inflation for 2022: 5.8 percent) on poverty risk in Austria. There are no direct changes in the at-risk-of-poverty rate, as the poverty-indicator is based on household income. Rather, the effects are indirect: due to the different expenditure and expenditure structures of goods and services purchased by households of different income levels, inflation falls hardest on households with lower incomes, and thus households at risk of poverty. In the medium term, rising housing prices in particular put pressure on the living standards of low-income households.