Minister to debate rising fuel prices with firms

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Business

People’s Party (ÖVP) Economy Minister Reinhold Mitterlehner will meet with mineral oil industry bosses and petrol station chiefs to discuss soaring fuel prices.More and more Austrian drivers are fuming as petrol stations upped prices shortly before the Easter and the Whitsun weekend holiday breaks.A vast majority of 90 per cent of Austrians even think firms […]

IHS chief calls stabilisation package ‘a reasonable solution’

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Bernhard Felderer, who heads the Vienna economic think tank the Institute of Higher Studies (IHS), has said that last night’s Euro-zone stability package was “a reasonable solution” that had already begun to stem speculation against the Euro.Speaking today (Mon) Felderer said: “They (finance ministers) did not have many other options,” adding that “it is not […]

Austrian students’ knowledge of economics cause for concern

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Austrian students are interested in economics, but their knowledge about it is cause for concern, according to the Austrian Institute for Educational Research on Economics (ibw).The Institute’s report released today (Fri) are the results of a test taken by 1,900 students in Austrian higher-educational institutions and shows that only half of them had an adequately […]

Baxter to expand in Austria, Bohuslav claims

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US pharmaceutical firm Baxter will expand its operations in Vienna and Orth an der Donau, Lower Austria, the Lower Austrian Economic Councillor Petra Bohuslav has said.The statement came today (Fri) following her return from a visit to Chicago, Illinois, where Baxter International’s headquarters are located.Since Baxter’s Austrian locations were its most important in the area […]

Austrian exports rose in February

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Austrian exports rose in February by 5.5 per cent year on year to 7.82 million Euros, according to Statistik Austria.The agency added today (Fri) that imports had grown by 3.4 per cent year on year to 8.08 billion Euros in February. Both exports and imports had declined year on year in January.For the two months […]

Verbund interested in French hydroelectric plants

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Business

Austrian electricity provider Verbund wants to buy hydroelectric plants in the Pyrenees and the Alps in France, firm General Director Wolfgang Anzengruber said today (Fri).He said Verbund would compete for licences for plants operated by EdF and GdF-Suez that would be newly issued. Verbund would be interested in obtaining 10 per cent, or 5,000 MW, […]

OMV chief expects much better results this year

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Austrian oil and gas producer OMV’s chief Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer has said he expects his firm to have much better results this year than in 2009.Ruttenstorfer said today that predictions were difficult at present, especially given the recent sharp decline in the price of OMV’s stock, but said the plunging Euro would be “positive” for the […]

Raid at VIA over Skylink scandal

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Business

Lower Austrian prosecutors have raided offices at Vienna International Airport (VIA) today (Thurs).Korneuburg state prosecutor Friedrich Köhl said dozens of documents have been confiscated. “It will probably take several weeks to examine them,” he added.A spokesman for Flughafen Wien AG, the company managing VIA, claimed none of their offices were searched. He added it had […]

Unpaid overtime prevents creation of 60,000 new jobs

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Austrians did more than 300 million hours of overtime last year, labour market experts have said.Upper Austrian Labour Chamber (AKOÖ) president Johann Kalliauer said today (Thurs) that around a third of the 314 million overtime hours was unpaid work.He further added that the creation of approximately 60,000 new full-time positions was hindered by the massive […]

WIFO says industry will do well in Q2

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Business

Austria’s economy will recover in the second quarter of this year, a leading think tank has predicted today (Thurs).Vienna-based Institute for Economic Research (WIFO) said the country’s industrial branch’s engagement will soar by three per cent to 79 per cent compared to the first three months of 2010.WIFO said engagement will continue to increase. “The […]