At least twice a year, the Fiscal Advisory Council assesses Austria’s fiscal and macroeconomic performance and offers recommendations on the fiscal stance of central, regional and local governments and on structural reform issues identified. As a rule, these assessments and recommendations are directly linked to the Council’s analyses and fiscal forecasts presented in the public finance report and the fiscal rules compliance report. The fiscal policy recommendations are submitted to the Federal Minister of Finance and to the Austrian parliament and are discussed by the parliamentary Budget Committee.
Recommendations as of December 2023
- Swiftly improving crisis resilience and restoring a sustainable fiscal position is key
- Implementing structural reforms to create and expand fiscal space for necessary investments for the future
- Actively representing and practicing fiscal discipline within the EU’s rules-based fiscal framework – at both the national and the international level
- Consistently implementing the objectives of the new fiscal sharing agreement
- Advancing the legal fiscal framework to improve transparency and the ability to manage public finances, taking administrative costs into account
- Including climate-related fiscal risks in budget planning and forecasts
Year of publication: 2023
Recommendations of June 2023
- Be ambitious in reducing budget deficits
- Create budgetary scope for addressing fiscal risks and medium-term challenges
- Use new revenue sharing agreement to raise cost efficiency especially in health care
- Swiftly implement climate action and boldly expand related measures to reduce additional spending in the long term
- Phase out broad temporary anti-inflationary measures and ensure that any future support measures effectively target the intended social groups
- Align domestic fiscal rules with EU rules as soon as possible and ensure that they support governance
Year of publication: 2023
Recommendations as of December 2022
- To open up fiscal space in the medium term, expansionary fiscal policy needs to be tightened again while considering the business cycle
- Investments in the future and structural reforms to safeguard long-term fiscal sustainability
- Results-oriented, swift negotiations on the revenue sharing agreement are an opportunity to establish strengthened coordination and steering mechanisms across all levels of government
- Institutional mechanisms for raising the transparency, effectiveness and impact orientation of budgets
- New spending rule in line with the European Commission’s proposal should be implemented constructively and quickly; structural budget balance should be re-tained as a key figure for orientation and analysis
Year of publication: 2022
Recommendations of June 2022
- Temporary monetary government transfers targeted at lower-income households need to be quickly adopted and paid out to cushion the effect of high price increases
- Social transfers in general should be raised to maintain the real purchasing power of all income from transfers
- Additional government revenues resulting from higher inflation need to be used to preserve some fiscal space and to finance inflation-induced additional expenditure
- A scientific evaluation needs to be performed to assess the effectiveness and adequacy of support measures adopted to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 crisis and high inflation
- Enabling future investments by aiming for system efficiency in structural reform areas involving multiple levels of government, in particular, to address the financial interlinkages in the health and long-term care systems
- Clear political decisions on sustainable funding of long-term care
- Meeting CO2 emission targets requires creation of fiscal space
Year of publication: 2022
Recommendations of December 2021
- Changing environment for health care, social and economic policies needs to be care-fully monitored to allow well-targeted government crisis intervention
- Austrian government should use medium-term fiscal space for structural reforms and growth-enhancing investments
- Strategic approach to subsidization should increasingly reflect the growing importance of climate policy
- Steering effect of national fiscal framework needs to be improved
Year of publication: 2021
Recommendations of June 2021
- Cautiously proactive return to sustainable fiscal policies after the pandemic
- Implementing structural reforms to safeguard highly effective systems of the welfare state and sustainable public finances
- Accepting ecological and digital challenges and choosing the adequate policy mix
- Using current conditions (no numerical evaluation of rules compliance) to devel-op further and optimize the Austrian fiscal framework (2012 ÖStP)
- Actively contributing to developing further the EU fiscal framework and resolving issues of conflicting objectives
Year of publication: 2021
Recommendations of December 2020
- Thoroughly preparing and rigorously implementing the return to sustainable fiscal policy after COVID-19 pandemic
- Maintaining local government investment and services of general economic interest, sustainable financing of more clearly defined areas of responsibilities under the fiscal sharing framework
- Continuing with policies to strengthen the labor market as warranted by its special fiscal and social relevance
- Creating the basis for a valid ex ante evaluation of national fiscal rules by operationalizing the general escape clause and making available recent data
- Actively participating in the necessary reform of the EU fiscal framework by contributing previous experience
Year of publication: 2020
Recommendations of May 2020
- Allow debt ratio to rise in 2020; seek to safeguard sustainable public finances through structural reforms
- Focus policy measures on strengthening the labor market given its special fiscal and social relevance
- Go for “green” investments to stimulate the economy and cut CO2 emissions
- Reduce control account deficits in line with the business cycle and identify the implications of the general escape clause
Year of publication: 2020
Recommendations of December 2019
- New government will need to continue a determined and stability-oriented budget policy and ensure sustained compliance with medium-term budget objective
- Correcting negative control account balances without undue delay and improving the framework for an ex ante evaluation of the regional spending rule
- Sustainable design and funding of long-term care in Austria
- Making the Austrian pension system more sustainable and resilient
- Ensuring the quality of regulatory impact assessment (costing) and improving its transparency
Year of publication: 2019
Recommendations of May 2019
- The effects of automatic stabilizers need to be able to freely unfold and the medium-term budget objective needs to be persistently pursued
- Implementing structural reforms to ensure sustainable public finances
- Prioritizing investments in infrastructure and human capital to gradually raise the quality of public finances
- Increasing the incentive effects of the Austrian tax and transfer system
- Improving the national fiscal rules framework and monitoring system to facilitate effective central steering
Year of publication: 2019
Recommendations of December 2018
- Austria set to comply with a neutral fiscal stance satisfying the “medium-term objective (MTO)” in 2019 and 2020
- Ensuring a sustainable consolidation path through effective structural re-forms (especially of federal structures, taxes, health care and pensions)
- Clarifying the future funding of long-term care
- Strengthening strategic budgeting in spring
- Comprehensive and transparent estimations of the fiscal effects of complex reform plans under the fiscal impact assessment exercise (“costing”)
- Extensive simplification of the Austrian Stability Pact (2012 ÖStP) and im-proved access to information for the general public and Fiscal Advisory Council
Year of publication: 2018
Recommendations of September 2018
- High fiscal forecasting performance of Austrian Fiscal Advisory Council
- Different definitions of subsidies cause big differences in recorded figures on government subsidy spending; Elimination of existing information deficits and improved evaluation could enhance efficiency of subsidies
Year of publication: 2018
Recommendations of May 2018
- Good economic conditions help fiscal consolidation –
- Austria expected to be in compliance with EU fiscal
- rules in 2018 and 2019
- Different levels of government need adequate division of
- responsibilities and financing structures to ensure a sustainable
- fiscal course
- Adaptations of the national fiscal framework (2012 Austrian
- Stability Pact) are called for
- Noncompliance with national fiscal rules expected for
- 2016 and 2017
Year of publication: 2018
Recommendations of December 2017
- Austria’s fiscal position temporarily improves in 2017 on the back of economic upswing; broad compliance with fiscal rules
- Strong economic upswing calls for neutral or restrictive fiscal stance in 2018
- Good conditions for curbing debt ratio
- Reform of federal structures should be priority; efforts to boost structural reforms and investment in infrastructure should be intensified
- National fiscal rules to be tested for viability as Austria’s Stability Pact entered full implementation in 2017
- Long-time care costs might go beyond agreed cost containment path
- Risk management should focus on the long term
Year of publication: 2017
Recommendations of May 2017
- Broad compliance with fiscal rules in 2016 despite rising deficit; further compliance will require further efforts
Year of publication: 2017
Recommendations of December 2016
- Funding of tax reform is below plan, but budget path for 2016/2017 ex-ceeds expectations of the spring forecast
- Broad compliance with EU fiscal rules in 2016/2017; budgetary measures should reflect the reversal of eligible clauses from 2019 more strongly
- Pushing ahead with structural reforms and infrastructure investment
- Agreement on Fiscal Sharing Act for 2017 to 2021 should be seen as a first step toward the reform of federalism in Austria
- Long-term risk management methods and greater transparency to improve budget management
Year of publication: 2016
Recommendations of July 2016
Year of publication: 2016
Recommendations for 2016 (of Dec. 2015)
Year of publication: 2015
Recommendations for 2015 (of July 2015)
Year of publication: 2015
Recommendations for 2015 (of Dec. 2014)
Year of publication: 2014
Recommendations for 2014 (of July 2014)
Year of publication: 2014
Recommendations for 2014 (of Dec. 2013)
Year of publication: 2013
Recommendations for 2013 (of July 2013)
Year of publication: 2013
Recommendations for 2013 (of Dec. 2012)
Year of publication: 2012
