Austria
By Jacob Korte
Overall score: 71.2 World Rank: 30
Quick Facts Austria vs United States
Population: 8.5 million/316.4 million
GDP: 361.4 billion/16.8 trillion
GDP Growth%: 0.4%/1.9%
GDP Per Capita: $42,597/$53,101
Unemployment: 5.6%/7.5%
Inflation: 2.5%/1.5%
Foreign Direct Investment: $49.8 billion/187.5 billion
Legal System
Austria has a lot of property freedom. They have an independent judiciary system which provide effective means for protecting property. Their system makes it very easy for foreigners to but property and live there.
Competitive Markets
Austria's is sort of competitive in its markets. Austria's main focus is to make the markets efficient and productive. Austria wants the markets to be very innovating.
Limits on Government Regulation
Austria has no minimum wage and flexible regulations. The flexible regulations causes employment to rise. Austria markets are efficient and productive but the absence of major regulatory reforms make the markets less competitive.
An Efficient Capital Market
Austria is very open to investment. They are one of the top investing countries (for their size). They do not have any currency controls, so it welcomes people form other countries to come to Austria. Austria also has a low tariff rate causing them to trade a lot.
Monetary Stability
Austria's currency is the euro. Austria GDP growth is modest but their government debt is rising. Austria's economy is outperforming many other European countries but it does have some things wrong with it. The price of the euro is higher than the United states dollar.
Low Tax Rates
Austria's tax rate is higher than some countries. Austria's highest income tax rate is 50%. Austria's taxing equals 43.2% of the economy, which is a lot. The countries market competitiveness is low because of how free everything is.
Free Trade
Austria's tariff rate is around 1.0%, making them very open for external trading. Austria exports a lot of machinery because it is cheaper for them to make it than others. Austria's main imports are cars, metal good and food. They also have no controls on currency transfers.
Advantage Austria - Innovations and Facts Austria Info graphic (English)
The video shows that Austria has created some very important things like space glasses, decorative crystals and tunnel creating technology. Austria has the worlds largest solar thermal plant. The video shows that they are a very innovative and productive country.