Brussels, 20/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday the Ecofin council produced an opinion that was quite critical of the updated stability programme in Austria for 2003-2007. Economy and Finance Ministers believe that the economic polices of the Austrian authorities "do not in part comply" with the recommendations of the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines (BEPG), notably on budgetary consequences. The Council highlight the partial respect for the budgetary surplus criteria that was close to balance and wanted to know what the consequences of the announced lowering of taxes would be. The Council affirmed that "such a lowering in revenue should be accompanied by measures corresponding to a reduction in spending". It also pointed out that Austria had envisaged a structural deficit (seasonally adjusted) of 1% of GDP in 2003 (deterioration of 0.9%) and 1.4% of GDP in 2005 (with the effect f reduced taxes) and that it would not be before 2007 that the deficit would fall below 0.5 of GDP.
The Council also adopted very positive opinions on the stability programme of Finland and the convergence programmes of Sweden and Denmark..