The President of the Budget Council, Christoph Badelt, is also in favor of supporting companies with energy costs if the crisis persists. However, these should only be reimbursed for part of their additional costs, according to Badelt in Ö1’s “Mittagsjournal”. Furthermore, only those firms that do not fail anyway, whose competitiveness is at risk and which cannot pass their higher costs on to prices should be supported.
Families could also receive additional support if the crisis persists, and it must be assumed that. In both cases, however, this aid should be provided as a one-time payment or for a limited period, Badelt said. “In the event of an emergency, the public debt could also increase,” stressed the debt control body. The emergence of widespread poverty should not occur. But as soon as the end of the crisis becomes evident, a path of consolidation is needed.
The head of the Fiscal Council is currently assuming a budget deficit of around four percent of GDP for this year. In 2023 it should be “not at all inferior”, according to Badelt in the “Krone”. As of June, the debt control estimate was still 2.9 percent (2022) and 1.4 percent (2023). “As long as we’re in crisis mode, you have to accept the additional costs, but you don’t have to voluntarily double them.”
Badelt once again criticized the construction of the previous aid measures in Ö1. “I think too much of the money is randomly distributed.” This would also support people who could more or less endure a loss of prosperity. On the contrary, it could have been more generous to people who really need it. In the office of the Budget Council they had calculated that two thirds of the cost of curbing the price of electricity could have been saved if the aid had been more targeted.
Badelt expressed mild criticism of the anti-inflation demonstrations organized by the union last weekend. “You can’t ban inflation problems, you can’t settle them away.” Taking to the streets to demand “lower prices” appears that the government has the power to actually lower them. Of course, the union reflects only the state of mind of the population, but: “I don’t think it is good to reinforce this state of mind”.
Regarding the ongoing wage negotiations, Badelt believes that “it would make sense to reach an agreement soon” and also take into account the wide abolition of the cold progression in the agreements. This is because wage increases in the future will not be carried away by tax increases.
Badelt wants to address an EU-wide excess profit tax. “I think it would be nice to do something here,” he said. But the devil is in the details, for example in terms of demarcations or location effects. It would therefore be better to do this at EU level.
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