Austria thrifty in the wrong way

Austria has followed the example of other states and introduced budget cuts in the wake of the euro crisis. The daily Die Presse comments that the move will not correct financial policy errors because rather than investing more, the country is merely using its high tax revenues to cover its running costs: "The Austrian government's policy of forcing ministries to cut costs over the next four years and close a few embassies, put off painting the University of Vienna, train a few more post office workers as police officers and cut the staff of the public service by 0.5 percent per year does amount to something. But all this has done little to reverse the ruinous trend in public spending. This can only be achieved by fundamentally rethinking the expenditures, competences and structures suitable for a modern state in a rich society, and then by acting on these considerations. But for that to happen we would have to be as far gone as Greece."

» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Financial Markets, » Greece, » Austria, » Europe
All available articles from » Michael Prüller

» To the complete press review of Thursday, May 20, 2010