Prospects for Upper Austria as an Industrial Country
"Regional forecasts for 2021 are not available. However, WIFO tends to expect a somewhat more favourable development for Upper Austria in 2021 than for Austria as a whole, because the difficulties faced by industry, which dominated in spring 2020, are not likely to be as great in the current lockdown," said WIFO Director Christoph Badelt.
According to Badelt, however, there is no absolute certainty in the development of sales markets, such as Germany. In addition, there is increasing competition from rising emerging markets such as China in high-value, technology-related market segments. Thus, the industry in Upper Austria will have to consider with which products it will still be globally competitive.
WIFO Director Christoph Badelt, Governor of Upper Austria Thomas Stelzer and EcoAustria Director Monika Köppl-Turyna
According to Governor Thomas Stelzer, the unemployment rate for the full year 2020 in Upper Austria was 6.5 percent, the lowest of all Länder. Nevertheless, future development is difficult. The instrument of short-time work, for example, has been very well received in Upper Austria. According to Stelzer, the challenge now is to ensure that the end of short-time work means employment again and not the opposite: "All our efforts must be focused on this. EcoAustria Director Monika Köppl-Turyna does not see any particular danger of an imminent wave of bankruptcies in Upper Austria in a nationwide comparison.
