Austria 2025 – Lack of Competition, Excessive Regulation and a Surfeit of Red Tape Constrain Growth

Lack of competition due to "regulatory and bureaucratic overkill" has resulted in a bottleneck in economic growth in Austria. Intensifying competition as well as reducing the tangle of regulations and bureaucracy would substantially foster economic growth. Independent national measures to foster competition and deregulation to supplement EU-level requirements are necessary. The scope for an Austrian competition and regulatory policy that fosters economic growth is comparably large and could be carried out with little impact on the fiscal budget.