SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Moody's Investors Service on Friday affirmed Austria's triple-A rating but maintained a negative outlook. In leaving Austria's sovereign rating at AAA, Moody's noted that its economy is diversified and competitive and growth performance has been strong in comparison with other European economies.
"Austria has a good track record of achieving and maintaining low budget deficits....In 2011, the deficit outturn was better than budgeted and while 2012 will see a temporarily higher deficit outturn, Moody's anticipates that the budget deficit will return to its declining trend from 2013 onwards," said Moody's in a statement.
The ratings agency added that while Austria's public debt ratio is higher than some of its other Aaa-rated global peers, it is lower than Aaa-rated Germany, France and the U.K.
http://articles.marketwatch.com/2012-09-21/markets/33997594_1_negative-outlook-austria-ratings-agencyGood.
That's not set in stone yet. In 2011, we had an official budget deficit of 2.6%, which is below the 3% Maastricht goal. Until August, the budget deficit for 2012 was "only" 900 Mio. € higher than until August 2011.
But because under the Maastricht criteria, state and city deficits/surpluses as well as Social Security deficits/surpluses also have to be included, Austria could actually have a similar budget deficit this year than last year. The state/city deficits are consolidated further this year and the Austrian Social Security has historically a good surplus. And the economy has grown by 1.1% too in the first half of 2012. I think anything between 2.5 and 3% deficit is possible this year.