Sustainability of public finances in Austria (DE)

The FISK-Workshop focused on the evaluation of fiscal sustainability of Austrian public finances. Presentations outlined the main results of the sustainability analysis of the MoF/WIFO long-term-projection exercise, the sustainability reports by the European Commission and the newly established FISK-Fiscal Sustainability Report. All analyses calculate a long-term sustainability gap, which is driven by the increasing cost of ageing. Contrary to the other reports, the FISK expects health expenditure to be the main contributor to the demographically driven increase of expenditure. The FISK projections further show that structural reforms supported by growth enhancing investments are needed to close the long-run fiscal sustainability gap. In contrast, short-term oriented expansionary fiscal measures (e. g. pension payment increases above the legal inflation-linked automatism) increase the long-term fiscal sustainability gap.