Vienna’s local economy – perfectly poised to deal with the pandemic

Authorities have managed to reach their goals of balancing the budget a year early, allowing the city to invest substantially in economic renewal

Over the past few years, authorities in the Austrian capital of Vienna have been striving towards achieving a balanced budget that would be resilient in a crisis and that would give them ample room to manoeuvre should excessive amounts of investments be required - and just in time, they have managed to accomplish their task.

Figures for Vienna’s budget for 2019 show that the city’s local government has reached its targets a year earlier than previously expected, right on time to answer the unfolding economic crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic

Vienna’s budgetary success in numbers

Despite high investments by the municipality in 2019, Vienna managed not only to not incur any new debts throughout the year but to also repay 9.2 million euros and to create a reserve of 758 million euros

All this has given the Austrian capital an edge when it comes to tackling the economic crisis. As explained by City Councillor for Finance Peter Hanke "The economically successful year 2019 and a disciplined budget implementation make it possible: A year earlier we achieved our goal and balanced it, with high investments, clear handwriting and without new debts. Just in time for the current Corona crisis, we were also able to build up important reserves to take precautions for situations like this. That helps us a lot now. "

Throughout 2019, Vienna generated incomes and expenditures totalling 14.2 billion euros. The simultaneous reduction in debt also lowered its current levels to 6.6% of the gross regional product (or 6.69 billion euros). Over the past year, the city invested heavily in ventures that directly contributed to boosting the performance of local businesses, as well as in other initiatives with a high return.

Thanks to its visionary policies, the Austrian capital can now safely overreach when attempting to alleviate the pressure on its citizens and when figuring out new ways of reinvigorating the local economy.