The EU's Assessment of Macroeconomic Imbalances in Austria

In spring the European Commission published its first "Alert Mechanism Report" on macroeconomic imbalances in the European Union summarising ten indicators in a scoreboard. Austria exceeded the relevant thresholds in three cases: 1. Austria's export market share decreased by 14.8 percent during the last three years (threshold: -6 percent). 2. The government debt ratio equalled 72 percent of GDP (threshold: 60 percent). 3. The debt ratio of the private sector amounted to 166 percent of GDP (threshold: 160 percent).