Mainly on the back of strong exports, Austria’s GDP grew by 2% in 2004, thus being clearly higher than in the two previous years but in line with the euro area average. The OeNB recently forecast real GDP to grow by 2.0% in 2005 and 2.2% in the next two years.
And judging by the facts we now have, I must concede that the figures thrown around in the debate surrounding Basel III and the demands which these numbers were used to justify did take me aback at times. You see, our impact studies found the increase in capital requirements to be measured, on average.