Austria’s Manufacturing Competitiveness

This study discusses Austria’s manufacturing competitiveness and its influence on changes in the export market shares of domestic manufacturers. We first analyze price competitiveness over time and then conduct a constant-market-shares analysis in order to attribute changes in the export market shares of domestic manufacturers to their competitiveness on the one hand and international demand patterns on the other. Austria’s manufacturing industry seized the opportunity to expand to the east when the markets in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE) opened up. Against this backdrop, domestic manufacturers were able to improve their price competitiveness between 1995 and 2004. They also gained export market shares from 2000 onward but lost some ground in 2005 and 2006. Since then, market shares and price competitiveness have remained broadly unchanged, which means that Austria has in fact done better than most other euro area countries. By historical comparison, the impact of the financial and economic crisis on Austrian manufacturers’ export market shares and their competitiveness remained limited.