“Austria’s export miracles” in the years 2017 and 2018
Austria’s export industry is starting the year 2018 with high expectations. After an all-time high in 2017, from today’s perspective, an export increase of 7.5 percent is expected also for this year. The exports of merchandises can be expected to go beyond the mark of EUR 150 billion, said Christoph Leitl, President of the Austrian Economic Chamber said at a press conference in Vienna.
In 2017, Austria’s 56,000 export companies achieved an increase of 7.9 percent over the previous year. Once again Germany was the most important trading partner (EUR 31 billion), followed by the USA (EUR 7.07 billion), Italy (EUR 6.7 billion), Switzerland (EUR 5.25 billion) and France (EUR 5, 08 billion). The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, the United Kingdom and China were ranked six to ten with EUR 2.7 billion.
Exports of goods to Iran and Russia have increased in value by 17 percent. Growth in foreign trade with Russia was largely driven by capital goods. In foreign trade with the United Kingdom, the “Brexit” showed initial effects in the form of a decline in value of 5.3 percent.
The commodity structure of Austrian foreign trade was divided into 40.1 percent of machinery and vehicles (including motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts), followed by processed goods (21.5 percent), chemical products (13.5 percent), food, drinks and wood products.
The growth of the Austrian export industry created 80,000 new jobs in 2017.