Strong Growth in Manufacturing and Sizable Employment Gains. Economic Outlook for 1998 and 1999

Driven by strong exports of goods and lively industrial activity and investment, the Austrian economy is set to grow by 3 percent in volume this year. In 1999, with private consumption becoming a major force of expansion, GDP growth should accelerate further, to an average rate of 3.2 percent. Output strength will stimulate demand for labor and push employment to a new high, while allowing unemployment to recede in 1999 for the first time since 1994.