Austria 2021

Austria is set to overcome the COVID-19 shock and its economic scars with the help of genuine sanitary, health and economic support policies. The country faces the opportunities and the challenges of two major structural transformations: transition to a net zero emission economy, and the generalisation of more advanced forms of digitalisation. New entries and exits in the business sector, more capital and labour re-allocations, and greater geographic mobility of labour invite new policy measures to boost social cohesion by improving the adaptation of skills to jobs, improving the social protection of free-lance workers, and accelerating the social, economic and educational integration of groups of migrant origin. A better activation of Austria's talent pool, in particular female, elderly and migrant workers is needed to address the ageing of the society. As the public sector is already large, the level of public debt is elevated and population ageing weighs on public finances, high-quality public sector spending reviews and a strengthened medium-term public expenditure framework would help with the prioritisation and effective allocation of public resources.