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MONEY

Austria’s 2023 budget: Where is the money going and how will it affect you?

Austria's Finance Ministry presented on Wednesday the government's budget for 2023. Here's what you need to know about the measures that could impact you.

Austria's 2023 budget: Where is the money going and how will it affect you?
A woman walks past a closed boutique store on the Graben, a shopping street in the city centre of Vienna. (Photo by JOE KLAMAR / AFP)

Austrian finance minister Magnus Brunner (ÖVP) on Wednesday presented his first annual budget to the country’s parliament, as he tried to get the message across that the finance measures weren’t all crisis-related.

It wasn’t an easy sell, given billions of euros have been earmarked and are still being spent on corona aid packages and anti-inflation measures.

Still, Brunner said the country would be “using the current challenges to set priorities” as he laid out plans involving increasing the military budget and investing in “social and economic security”.

READ ALSO: Milk, cheese and eggs by 19.5 percent: How food prices in Austria are rising

Overall, Austria will see its debt growing to € 367bn, but the government debt share of the country’s gross domestic product will fall slightly from 78.3 to 76.7 percent.

The country will also have to deal with interest payments doubling in 2023 as rates soar. However, the federal government’s net administrative finance balance amounts to a deficit of € 17bn in 2023 – an improvement of € 6.1bn compared to 2022.

The procurement of the strategic gas reserve, short-term inflation relief measures and measures to deal with the Covid-19 crisis have weighed heavily on the 2022 budget, the document presented by the Ministry of Finance said.

But what does this mean to the population and Austria’s expenditure in the coming years?

Priority points

The finance minister said several times that the budget wouldn’t be “purely a crisis budget”. Instead, he presented three priorities: the first was crisis management, but also investments in security and “ecological transformation of the economy”, with efforts to reduce (energy) dependency.

READ ALSO: ‘Mission 11’: Austrian government reveals tips on how to save energy and fuel

“The government is spending a lot of money to support industry in its ecological transformation and is investing in security, both military and economic, as well as in the security of supply”, Brunner said.

The “economic transformation” will be supported with €863 million in the coming year and a total of €5 billion by 2026.

Austrian finance minister Magnus Brunner (ÖVP) presents the country’s 2023 budget on October 12th 2022(Fotocredit: BKA/Dunker)

Further inflation-relief measures

From January to September, inflation in Austria more than doubled from 5 percent to 10.5 percent, the minister said.

Brunner stated this was a threat to the prosperity and growth of the past few years. Therefore, in 2022, measures against inflation amounting to €6.3 billion were implemented, explained the finance minister.

According to him, further relief measures totalling €30 billion are planned for the next few years – up to 2026. “It is important that citizens and companies can rely on the state”, he said.

Social Affairs and Health

The Social Affairs and Health Ministry will receive an extra €1 billion to its budget in the coming year, with minister Johannes Rauch setting the fight against poverty, care and health promotion as priorities, according to a press statement.

“In the coming year, we will implement measures that other social affairs ministers have been fighting for decades: Social benefits will increase yearly in the future. For the first time, the compensatory allowance and social assistance are increasing faster than pensions”, he said.

READ ALSO: More pay and longer holidays: How Austria hopes to attract 75,000 new nurses

Rauch also specified that the money would be used “where it is currently most urgent”. He mentioned the combat of poverty, cushioning the consequences of the pandemic and counteracting the shortage of nursing staff.

The minimum pension in Austria will be increased by a fixed amount of € 20 per month, according to the Social Affairs Ministry.

The 2023 budget also sets an important focus for people with disabilities: an additional €80 million are earmarked for improving social and professional participation, it added.

READ ALSO: What the Austrian government’s new pension package means for you

The minister also said health promotion and preventive care would receive €27 million next year, with most of it going towards vaccination programs. Still, some are going towards digitisation projects in the healthcare sector. For example, there is a plan for digitising the Mutter-Kind-Pass, the “mother child passport”, an essential document for those having babies in Austria.

The budget for art and culture is also increasing by 11.3 percent compared to last year.

READ ALSO: How could Austria’s new electricity price brake benefit you?

“Art and culture are the cornerstones of our society and must be preserved in all their diversity with strong public funding, even in difficult times,” said State Secretary Andrea Mayer in a press statement.

The most significant part of the budget increase, € 37.5 million, is dedicated to fighting the wave of inflation, the State Secretary for Art and Culture said. Of this, €22 million will flow into a renewed increase in the basic payments to the federal theatres and federal museums.

The remaining €15.5 million are available for funding adjustments in the area of ​​art funding.

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For members

PROPERTY

Why are young people in Austria so pessimistic about homeownership?

Most young people in Austria do not believe they can afford to buy their own home with their income. Here is why.

Why are young people in Austria so pessimistic about homeownership?

Only 39 percent of young professionals think they can afford their own home with their income, according to a new GPA trade union survey

Around 1000 Austrians aged 16 to 29 participated in the survey, which shows that the expectation of being able to buy property without inheritance or help decreases with age.

Austrians aged 25 to 29 are the most pessimistic

The survey shows that as life and work experience increase, the expectation of being able to buy a home from one’s salary decreases.

Younger Austrians up to 24 years old are more likely to believe they can achieve this (44 percent) compared to Austrians between 25 and 29 years old (30 percent).

The difference becomes even more significant between those still in education (59 percent) and those who are working (33 percent).

Expectations are consistent across both low- and high-income groups.

READ MORE: How can I move into affordable cooperative housing in Vienna?

Young women least satisfied with salary

More than a third of young Austrians find that they have a salary that is too low.

In the survey, 43 percent of women expressed not being satisfied with their earnings, compared to 36 percent of men.

The survey also shows that the participants prioritise choosing educational fields where it is easy to find a job after graduation (86 percent) and where they can experience good earning prospects (84 ).

High prices, rates and strict lending criteria

One of the biggest barriers to owning a home in Austria is the sky-high property prices. Over the years, property prices have increased, making it more difficult for people with an average income to afford a place of their own. 

Another factor making owning a home challenging is the increase in interest rates in recent years. As a result, both existing variable-rate loans and newly obtained fixed-rate loans have become more expensive.

Analysts expect the European Central Bank to cut interest rates by around 0.5 percent in the near future, but according to durchblicker’s calculations, this would initially only create a little relief for loan takers, where instead of around 60 percent, 55 percent of monthly household net income would be needed for debt repayment.

Difficulties obtaining a mortgage

Another issue preventing many from realising their dream to buy a home is the difficulty obtaining a mortgage.

Since July 2022, stricter rules have applied in Austria for the granting of property loans. Loan applicants must have a deposit worth at least 20 percent of the value of their property to be granted a loan.

This means that young professionals need to work for many years and earn a high income to have a chance of being accepted.

READ ALSO: Why buying property in Austria remains unaffordable for most

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