Country Overview
Austria’s infrastructure governance and funding capacity both rank highly among countries in InfraCompass2020. Its strong credit rating and high GDP per capita, place Austria in a good position to fund new infrastructure investment. In addition, the quality of Austria’s regulatory frameworks and governance systems promote competition among suppliers and provide strong protections against insolvency. Despite strong funding capacity, private infrastructure investment and value of PPP infrastructure investment remain modest. To encourage private investment Austria could start publishing procurement guidelines and improving PPP contract management.
See Full Overview Data
GDP per capita
53,332 USD
Population
8.9 million persons
Infrastructure quality
89.0 (0-100 best)

Driver Overview

This section shows a country’s rank, ranking change and score for each of the eight drivers. It also categorises each country’s driver performance on a scale from “Emerging” (score from 0-20) to “Global Leader” (score from 80-100).

Driver
Rank
Score /100
Emerging Aspiring Contender Top performer Global Leader
- No ranking change Ranking increase Ranking decrease

Rank

Score /100

Best practice

5
1
81.3
Global Leader
20
1
70.5
Top performer
35
5
73.8
Contender
34
2
75.4
Contender
65
1
53.2
Emerging
72
4
12.2
Emerging
10
1
75.7
Global Leader
27
2
43.5
Top performer

Metric Overview

Strengths

Transparency in public procurement

Austria’s public procurement notices are made available online and tender documents transparently detail procurement procedures. The transparency of the process encourages more participation and competition, which can drive value for money.

Summary credit rating

Austria's institutional strength, stable financial system and high GDP per capita has helped it maintain a summary credit rating of AA+ from major agencies. This lowers the cost of borrowing and as a result the cost of funding investment in infrastructure.

Financial stability

The International Monetary Fund’s 2019 Financial System Stability Assessment concluded that a well-capitalised banking system, robust regulatory framework and prudential policy actions had further lowered risks in an already resilient system. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is a concern.

Transparency in public procurement

Austria’s public procurement notices are made available online and tender documents transparently detail procurement procedures. The transparency of the process encourages more participation and competition, which can drive value for money.

Summary credit rating

Austria's institutional strength, stable financial system and high GDP per capita has helped it maintain a summary credit rating of AA+ from major agencies. This lowers the cost of borrowing and as a result the cost of funding investment in infrastructure.

Financial stability

The International Monetary Fund’s 2019 Financial System Stability Assessment concluded that a well-capitalised banking system, robust regulatory framework and prudential policy actions had further lowered risks in an already resilient system. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is a concern.

Top Performing Metrics

Top Performing Metrics

This is defined by the metrics with the highest unweighted score out of 100. 

High income country average

Funding capacity:
Summary credit rating

Financial markets:
Financial stability

Opportunities to Grow

Published infrastructure procurement guidelines

Austria does not publish guidelines for the procurement of infrastructure projects. Publishing guidelines makes contractors aware of the government’s processes, expectations and requirements. This improves transparency and helps achieve better value for money.

Market sounding and/or assessment

There is no formal requirement for a market sounding process for infrastructure projects in Austria. Adding one could allow the government to better determine if there is interest from investors and lenders to provide commercial financing for projects.

Value of closed PPP infrastructure deals

The value of closed PPP infrastructure deals as a proportion of GDP is the third lowest out of the High Income Countries, at only 0.006%. This is, significantly lower than the High Income Countries’ average of 0.11%. A low value may reflect a preference for traditional delivery models.

Published infrastructure procurement guidelines

Austria does not publish guidelines for the procurement of infrastructure projects. Publishing guidelines makes contractors aware of the government’s processes, expectations and requirements. This improves transparency and helps achieve better value for money.

Market sounding and/or assessment

There is no formal requirement for a market sounding process for infrastructure projects in Austria. Adding one could allow the government to better determine if there is interest from investors and lenders to provide commercial financing for projects.

Value of closed PPP infrastructure deals

The value of closed PPP infrastructure deals as a proportion of GDP is the third lowest out of the High Income Countries, at only 0.006%. This is, significantly lower than the High Income Countries’ average of 0.11%. A low value may reflect a preference for traditional delivery models.

Metrics to Improve

Metrics to Improve

This is defined by the metrics with the lowest weighted score out of 100, such that these metrics would have the greatest impact on the overall score.

For metrics that have binary outcomes (yes=100/no=0), no comparative income group average is reported.

High income country average

Detailed Data

This section shows country data for each of the 41 metrics. The figures in brackets denote the change in score since InfraCompass 2017. 

Note that all data has been normalised on a scale of 1-100. For raw metric data, please download the complete InfraCompass 2020 dataset. 

Where relevant, some metric scores have been inverted, such that all metrics have positive relationships with good infrastructure outcomes. For example, since lower compliance costs make it easier to invest in infrastructure, the normalised value of ‘number of procedures to start a business’ has been reversed such that lower number of procedures are scored closer to 100, and higher numbers closer to 0. In other words, a score of 0 indicates a poor performance, rather than 0 number of procedures.

Governance Regulatory Permits Planning Procurement Activity Funding Financial
Driver
Rank
Score /100
Emerging Aspiring Contender Top performer Global Leader
- No ranking change Ranking increase Ranking decrease

Metric

Austria

High Income Countries Average

Source Link

28.2%

Recovery rate

The recovery rate is recorded as cents on the dollar recovered by secured creditors through reorganisation, liquidation or debt enforcement (foreclosure or receivership) proceedings.

79.9 (-2.9)
68.3

20.7%

Rule of law

World Governance Composite Indicator reflecting perceptions of the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, and in particular the quality of contract enforcement, property rights, the police, and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence. The rule of law reflects whether the law imposes limits of power on the state, private sector and individuals.

87.5 (+1.2)
74.3

18.1%

Post-completion reviews

Whether the country conducts post-completion reviews on infrastructure projects to ensure the forecast outcomes are being achieved.

Yes
-

15.1%

Shareholder governance

Measures the governance practices that protect shareholders through three dimensions: the extent of shareholder rights index (shareholders’ rights and role in major corporate decisions), the extent of ownership and control index (governance safeguards protecting shareholders from undue board control and entrenchment), and the extent of corporate transparency index (corporate transparency on ownership stakes).

60.0
48.1

12.8%

Political stability and absence of violence score

Measures perceptions of the likelihood of political instability and/or politically-motivated violence, including terrorism. Estimate gives the country's score on the aggregate indicator, in units of a standard normal distribution i.e. ranging from approximately -2.5 to 2.5.

65.3 (+0.1)
61.9

5%

Infrastructure or PPP agency

Whether an infrastructure agency exists to coordinate an integrated approach to infrastructure delivery and policy.

Yes
-

Austria

High Income Countries Average

79.9 (-2.9)
68.3
87.5 (+1.2)
74.3
Yes
-
60.0
48.1
65.3 (+0.1)
61.9
Yes
-

Country Overview Data

Austria’s infrastructure governance and funding capacity both rank highly among countries in InfraCompass2020. Its strong credit rating and high GDP per capita, place Austria in a good position to fund new infrastructure investment. In addition, the quality of Austria’s regulatory frameworks and governance systems promote competition among suppliers and provide strong protections against insolvency. Despite strong funding capacity, private infrastructure investment and value of PPP infrastructure investment remain modest. To encourage private investment Austria could start publishing procurement guidelines and improving PPP contract management.
GDP per capita

53,332 USD

Population

8.9 million persons

Infrastructure quality

89.0 (0-100 best)

GDP

447.7 USD billion

GDP growth rate

1.6%

GDP per capita growth rate

-2.6%

Gini coefficient

30.5 (0-100 worst)

Gross Government Debt

71.0% of GDP

Inflation rate

1.5%

Summary credit rating

96.0 (0-100 best)

Unemployment rate

4.6%

Urbanisation ratio

58.0% of total population

Road connectivity

81.9 (0-100 best)

Quality of road infrastructure

6.0 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of train services

5.3 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of air transport services

5.2 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of seaport services

3.7 (1-7 best)

Electricity access

100.0% of population

Electricity supply quality

4.4% of output lost

Exposure to unsafe drinking water

0.2% of population

Reliability of water supply

6.9 (1-7 best)

Digital Adoption Index

0.9 (0-1 best)

Mobile-broadband subscriptions

88.0 per 100 population

Fixed-broadband Internet subscriptions

28.4 per 100 population