Policy Note 4: Income development in Austria

Various publicly available sources of information are used to draw a consistent picture. The development of real household income has been moderate but slightly positive over the last decade. Price trends for the various household deciles were very similar from 2000 to 2010 for the basket of goods consumed.Differences in real income development are therefore primarily determined by nominal incomes. The conclusions of the UBS study and the income calculations must be questioned. Although real disposable household incomes in Greece and Spain are likely to have increased significantly more than in Germany and Austria up until the crisis, this is to a large extent not due to improved competitiveness in these economies or membership of the eurozone.This is reflected in a massive increase in imports and a poorer foreign trade balance.