Draft Federal Budget for 2011 Takes First Steps Towards Consolidation
With the trough of the recession following the global financial market crisis having been passed, fiscal policy is faced with the need to return to a sustainable path. The federal government targets a reduction of the general government deficit (in the Maastricht definition) below the ceiling of 3 percent of GDP as from 2012; subsequently, the deficit is to be lowered stepwise to 2.2 percent of GDP by 2014, with the public debt ratio levelling off at around 72 percent of GDP. Underlying the consolidation path for the period from 2011 to 2014 is a government programme that assigns, from an overall federal perspective, slightly more than half of deficit reduction to expenditure restraint, and somewhat less than half to higher taxes. For the federal budget, the expected savings cumulate to € 8.1 billion, while additional revenues amount to some € 6 billion.
Between Consolidation and Growth: Federal Financial Framework 2013-2016, "Consolidation Package II" and Stability Programme
The government debt ratio in Austria will rise above 74 percent of GDP in 2012. The quantifiable costs of the financial market crisis and the global recession account for nearly 7¾ percentage points of this ratio, further discretionary measures and statistical revisions for the last few years add nearly 6 percentage points. The "consolidation package" adopted in spring 2012 is to ensure a balanced general government budget (according to the Maastricht definition) by 2016. In addition, it is intended to reduce the structural deficit to 0.4 percent of GDP and the debt ratio to 70.6 percent of GDP.
Public Sector Outsourcing: Creative Accounting or a Sustainable Improvement? – A Case Study for Austria
The key rationale for public sector outsourcing is normally to improve public sector delivery as well as the state of public finances as defined by the Maastricht criteria. Like the underlying motives, the ensuing effects may also be diverse, however: increased business efficiency is generally accompanied by redistribution effects, and public sector outsourcing can affect the state’s role as a service provider and may have implications for the state’s stabilizing function. By the same token, the fiscal effects of such outsourcing are not always clear-cut. While the fiscal balance can typically be “improved” in the short term, the common fiscal indicators tend to become less meaningful as a result. The long-term fiscal effects of public sector outsourcing – especially, on long-term fiscal sustainability – have barely been researched. As a review of two Austrian outsourcing cases – BIG (federal facility management company) and OBB (Austrian Federal Railways) – shows, public sector outsourcing has a major impact on the assessment of fiscal sustainability without actually improving fiscal sustainability itself.