Austria

Once the center of power for the large Austro-Hungarian Empire, Austria was reduced to a small republic after its defeat in World War I. Following annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938 and subsequent occupation by the victorious Allies in 1945, Austria's status remained unclear for a decade. A State Treaty signed in 1955 ended the occupation, recognized Austria's independence, and forbade unification with Germany. A constitutional law that same year declared the country's "perpetual neutrality" as a condition for Soviet military withdrawal. The Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 and Austria's entry into the European Union in 1995 have altered the meaning of this neutrality. A prosperous, democratic country, Austria entered the EU Economic and Monetary Union in 1999. In January 2009, Austria assumed a nonpermanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2009-10 term.

Economical characteristics

 * Currency: Euro (ISO code: EUR)
 * Central bank discount rate:
 * Commercial banks lending rate: 6.82% (31 December 2008)
 * is part of the Eurozone

Notable events:

 * Banking crisis: May 1873-1874, 1924, November 1929
 * Hyperinflation: 1921-1922
 * Years in inflation: 13.3% (share of years 1800-2009 with annual inflation above 20 per cent per annum)
 * Public default: 1802-1815, 1816, 1868-1870, 1914-1915, 1932-1933, 1938, 1940-1952 (external), 1945 (domestic)

Links

 * Austria on Wikipedia
 * Central bank of Austria
 * Studies from the Library of Congress (1986-1998)
 * BBC country profile
 * Hyperinflation, Money Demand, and the Crack-up Boom by Thorsten Polleit, January 2010
 * Finance and Banking in the Austrian Empire and the Republic of Austria by Ludwig von Mises, 1921
 * In the Shadow of Dr. Lueger (pdf) F. Andrei Znamenski, 2013