Regional Development Determined by Early Cyclical Turnaround. The Economies of the Austrian Federal States in 1995

The regional business cycle pattern in Austria in 1995 was shaped by the strong performance of the export-oriented manufacturing industries in the first half-year. Locations with strong concentration on the production of consumer goods and services fared comparatively less well. Despite the problems in the tourism sector, the western region achieved markedly stronger output growth (+2.6 percent in volume) than the South (+1.8 percent) and East (+1.6 percent). In manufacturing, traditional industrial sites in Upper Austria (output +9.5 percent) and Styria (+9.3 percent), but also in Carinthia (+4.6 percent) benefited for most of the year from growing demand for semi-manufactures and investment goods as is typical for the early stage of recovery. However, eastern regions with production concentrated on consumer goods found little scope for expansion. In tourism, structural problems and external constraints led to further output losses in major target areas in the West (overnight stays in the state of Salzburg –5.5 percent, in Tyrol –4.8 percent) and the South (Carinthia –5.2 percent). Only the city tourism (Vienna +1.4 percent) posted further gains. Less export-oriented industries remained under the influence of rather sluggish internal demand. Retail sales in Carinthia and Styria fell slightly, due to increased cross-border shopping following the devaluation of the Italian Lira; in the Eastern region (Burgenland –6.6 percent, Vienna –1.8 percent) price differentials vis-à-vis neighboring transition countries caused shifts in purchasing power to these countries, since they have also made progress in upgrading the quality of goods supplied; retailers in the state of Salzburg (–4.7 percent) and in Tyrol (–2.2 percent) suffered from the fewer number of tourists from abroad. Construction output also fell nearly everywhere, except in Vienna (+3.3 percent) and Upper Austria (+5.3 percent). The regional spread of GDP growth, measured at the Federal state level, has been substantial, with those states showing a high share of manufacturing industry taking the lead (Upper Austria +4.0 percent, Styria +2.9 percent, Lower Austria +2.5 percent, Vorarlberg +2.1 percent). States with a relatively high share of services production fared less well (Tyrol +1.5 percent, Vienna +1.3 percent, Salzburg +1.0 percent). "Losers" were the structurally weaker states of Carinthia (–0.4 percent) and Burgenland (–2.3 percent). The differential between the Austrian NUTS-II regions has thus become somewhat wider in 1995.