Doing Business in Austria 235THE ECONOMY
Austria’s economy was in shambles following World
War II. The Marshall Plan pumped much-needed money into
the country, and eventually the economy took off. In 1995,
Austria joined the European Union and its economy became
integrated with the other markets of the region. In 2002,
the common currency of the EU, the Euro ( € ), replaced the
Austrian Schilling.
Schillings to Euros
The official exchange rate was 13.67 Schillings to € 1. Following
the conversion, many items seemed more expensive than before.
Some suspect that instead of doing the proper math, people
merely dropped a zero from the price in Schillings. For example, a
worker who before might have received a tip of 50 Schillings, now
gets € 5 instead of a more accurate € 4.Historically, Austria has had a strong public sector,
characterised by a large number of publicly-owned companies
and heavy regulation of the economy. Many industries, like
banking, manufacturing, electricity, telecommunications
and transportation, were nationalised following World War
II. In an effort to reduce its budget deficit to comply with
the stability programme for the Euro, Austria began a series
of privatisations. The telecommunications sector allowed