Throughout the last decade of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st, Austria has successfully pursued a comprehensive economic reform program, aimed at creating a more competitive business environment which will further reinforce the position of the country in the international market and its attractiveness as an investment location. The aforementioned program had the desirable effects as the Austrian economy was boosted by strong exports and as a result the Gross Domestic Product Growth reached 3.3% in both 2006 and 2007. Nevertheless, the global economic and financial crisis reversed the positive economic environment that has been created. 

The positive results of another important indicator of the economic status quo of a country, “unemployment” highlights the positive economic situation of Austria. In 2006 unemployment rates in Austria was 4.7% and compared with the EU average of 6.8%, Austria was undoubtedly among the leading countries in terms of low unemployment. Nevertheless, the economic crisis of 2008 had a negative effect and in unemployment. The unemployment rate was 5.1% in the 3rd quarter of 2009. The unemployment rate rose from 5.0% in the 3rd quarter of 2008 to 6.4% in the current quarter.

There are two main economic reasons behind the socio-economical boost that Austria experienced before the economic crisis. The first one is the fact that the country is a member state of the European Union since the beginning of 1995 and furthermore was among the first (11) EU Member States that entered the 3rd stage of the Economic and Monetary Union at the beginning of 1999. Through this procedure Austria became a member of the world’s second-largest economic area and therefore an attraction for foreign investment.



The second reason was that the Austrian economy was greatly benefited from the strong commercial relations, especially in the banking and insurance sectors, with central, eastern, and south-eastern Europe. Of course the aforementioned sectors have been vulnerable to the international financial crisis and some of Austria's largest banks have even required government support.

The Austrian economy is a process of initialising some positive structural developments and it is almost certain that it will continue to do so after the negative effects of the global economic crisis will disappear. Therefore, Austria will need to continue restructuring, emphasizing knowledge-based sectors of the economy, and encouraging greater labor flexibility and greater labor participation in order to create the proper economic environment.