Austria's economy on the crossroads: alarm call before impending bankruptcies!

Austria's economy on the crossroads: alarm call before impending bankruptcies!

The Austrian economy faces massive challenges: increasing energy costs and upcoming price increases from January 2025 put companies under pressure. More than 260 companies, represented by Oecolution Austria, demand urgent politics to avert the impending risk of existence by numerous companies. These companies, which together represent more than 150,000 jobs, draw attention to the high wholesale prices, increased network charges and returning taxes that further tighten the economic situation, such as ots.at reported. In particular, the additional cost burden by the German gas storage levy makes gas imports by up to seven percent more expensive.

Elisabeth Zehetner, managing director of Oecolution, emphasizes the urgency of the situation and emphasizes that the energy costs must not become a question of existence for companies. It not only calls for immediate measures, but also structural reforms to ensure Austria's competitiveness. "The coming months will decide on the future of the Austria location," demands Zehetner and appeals to the parliament to secure jobs and investments in climate protection in the long term. The situation in Germany reflects similar problems. Loud tagesschau.de If companies are also confronted with high energy prices, which carries the risk of de -industrialization.

Investments in climate protection and technology

Germany has set itself the goal of becoming climate -neutral by 2045, but the growth of the economy is stagnating. High investments in green technologies are necessary to secure competitiveness, with the Federal Association of German Industry (BDI) demanding massive transformations. The total costs for this conversion could be 1.4 trillion euros by 2030, of which 880 billion euros should flow into climate investments.

Companies from the energy-intensive industry face special challenges: the basic material chemistry, cement and steel production are responsible for a large part of CO2 emissions. Nevertheless, there are opportunities for growth through future technologies, such as heat pumps or electric vehicles. It is clear that both Austria and Germany have to face profound economic changes in order to make their industries future -proof.