Having said that, one should not forget that because the level of economic activity differs widely between the euro area average and the CESEE region, the latter has the best longterm growth prospects in Europe – even if convergence will, most likely, proceed more slowly than in the past (with the annual growth differential dropping from up to 4 to below 2 percentage points).
Thanks to its proximity and its traditional ties to the CESEE region, Austria is in an excellent position to take advantage of this growth process. CESEE’s share in Austria’s total goods exports rose to 22% (2013) – with the euro area countries still accounting for half of all Austrian exports.