An Austrian company has been contracted to get one of Libyas most ambitious infrastructure projects back on track.Austrian Rail Engineering was assigned by the Libyan government to oversee and manage construction of hundreds of kilometres of motorways and railroads. Work started in 2006 but various problems slowed down its progress recently, according to a report […]
Ten per cent of Austrians struggle to make ends meet, according to a new survey.Pollsters IFES and SORA who carried out the study for the Upper Austrian Labour Chamber (AKOÖ) announced today (Fri) that one in 10 Austrians (350,000) said they were unable to get along on what they earned. The agencies stressed […]
Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) reported increased profit today (Thurs).The company announced net profit had risen by 9.2 per cent from the first six months of 2009 to 194.4 million Euros during the same period this year. Profit before taxes jumped by 11 per cent to 255.6 million Euros, it added. Analysts had expected profit before […]
The head of Austrias second-biggest bank has caused a stir by calling for the introduction of a tax on assets.Erste Bank boss Andreas Treichl told weekly magazine News today (Thurs): “A decent taxation on assets must be set up, of course, as well as (higher) real estate tax levels and inheritance tax.”Treichl also said tax […]
Peoples Party (ÖVP) general secretary Fritz Kaltenegger has ruled out higher real estate taxes as the budget debate intensifies.Kaltenegger said today (Fri) his party opposed an increase of land tax from next year. His pledge comes days after several economists and the ÖVPs coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPÖ), called for an open discussion over […]
Green parliamentary whip Werner Kogler called today (Weds) for creditors to make a contribution to the financing of the EU stability package for Euro-zone countries.He said they needed to do that before they dumped bonds issued by countries high in debt on the European Central Bank (ECB), thereby transferring their financial risk to EU tax-payers.Banks […]
Social Democratic (SPÖ) Chancellor Werner Faymann has said he expects this evenings (Fri) summit of Euro zone heads of state and government “to send a clear signal to the markets and to people in Europe.”Faymanns spokesman Leo Szemeliker added today that the chancellor wanted the summit to agree on a rescue package for bankrupt Greece […]
The Social Democrats (SPÖ) fear that a future British Conservative Party government would have “negative implications,” according to SPÖ federal manager Laura Rudas.Speaking today (Fri) Rudas said that such a government would constitute a set-back for efforts to make Europe “more social and for more regulation and control of financial markets. It would be more […]
Austrian business chiefs earned almost 500,000 Euros in so-called crisis year 2009, research shows.The research by Viennese consulting firm Kienbaum presented today (Thurs) shows that heads of Austrian firms cashed in an average 468,000 Euros before tax last year.Kienbaum experts said Austria lies above the European average, adding that comparable figures for the previous year […]
The Greens have called for a 100-million-Euro victims fund for people suffering abuse at Catholic institutions.The partys juridical issues spokesman Albert Steinhauser said yesterday (Mon) 100 million Euros should be the first benchmark before discussing further action.Steinhauser accused the government coalition formed by the Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the Peoples Party (ÖVP) of […]