Austria is one the world’s few freer economies ranking 16th in the European Union and 29th globally with a freedom score of 73.3. The country’s economic performance has been robust thus far, declining slightly in 2019 due to torpid trade growth. But overall, the economy of Austria is deemed to be one of the most stable among European nations and relies strongly on excellent academic standards, a compact labour market and higher wages. The spending on research and development is also significantly forward.
The arrival of Covid-19 caused the economy to fall by 7% in 2020 but the global economic recovery will help raise it back by 4.5% in 2021, says Norea. Whereas, Focus Economics predicts the growth rate in 2021 to be 4.7%, it becomes clear that Austria is bound to pick up the growth pace thanks to fiscal policies and renewed consumer and business confidence. The notable recovery will take on a more stable graph next year as the government economically reforms sectors that require more attention pre-pandemic and help them rise to a standard level, along with its plans to bounce back on the growth radar.
The market of Austria is primarily composed of food and luxury industry. The secondary and another major contributor is mechanical engineering, vehicle manufacturing, chemical industry and on. Among these, the ICT sector has been especially booming with steady growth. The major driving factor is the digitalization of various enterprises that has uplifted the Information and Communication Technology sector of the country to a leading trade. The major contribution within the sector is done by the research and development sector.
In itself, ICT has benefited from being the supporting sector to all the major trades in the country and hence become one itself. Within this, the cloud computing market is flourishing with IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service) as the most demanded services. Delving further, storage and backup tend to be the most taken up part of cloud offerings. The government of the country also makes use of these services but tend to lean towards cloud services provided by native cloud computing market holders instead of international players on the field.
Overall, Austria with its stable economy, excellent bounce back measures and booming technological advancement in the ICT sector and its various sub sectors has become the most attractive country for foreign investment over the years and has a high rate to aligning with its pre-pandemic goals within a couple of years.