eng SOPEMI Report on Labour Migration Austria 2013‐14 After the severe slump in economic development in 2009, the Austrian economy picked up in 2010 (+2.1%) and expanded by 2.7% in 2011. In 2012, in the wake of the economic recession in the Euro-zone, real GDP growth slowed down to an annual average of 0.9% and further in 2013 to 0.3%. This was the worst economic development since the economic crisis of 2009, when economic growth declined by 3.8%. However, economic growth remained clearly above the average of the Euro-zone (EU18: -0.6% in 2012 and -0.4% in 2013) and was about as high as in Germany (+0.7% in 2012 and +0.4% in 2013) – mainly due to continued investment in public infrastructure and housing. In 2014 the economy recovers slowly and economic growth is expected not to surpass 0.8%. It is above all the uncertainty about the political and economic developments in Eastern Europe that affect investment decisions and export growth. In 2013, economic growth in Austria was negatively affected by the weak economic performance of some Southern and Eastern European countries which are amongst Austria’s main trading partners (Italy and Hungary). Accordingly, export dynamics were restrained, real export growth amounting to 2.7% only (goods +2.6%, services +3.1%). As consumption and investment were subdued, import growth was even lower, amounting to 0.6% (goods +0.2%, services +2.3%). Biffl, Gudrun (Donau-Universität Krems) migration report ISBN: 978‐3‐902505‐67‐5 https://door.donau-uni.ac.at/o:147 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Edition Donau‐Universität Krems application/pdf 2014-11-01