The Austrian government follows a long-term, stability-oriented fiscal and economic policy, thereby attaining sustainable economic output with a high level of employment. Its primary goal at the moment is to proceed with structural fiscal consolidation and support potential growth in Austria. The most important areas for structural reforms are public administration, financial equalization, subsidies, education, pensions, and the labor market. By setting up this work program and by making decisions for a durable fiscal consolidation, the federal government is taking important steps towards preserving employment, welfare, and social stability. In mid-2015, government implemented a major tax reform, reducing the tax burden by EUR 5.2 billion, of which EUR 4.9 billion will be attributed to the reduction of the wage and income tax. This will boost GDP growth from 2016 onwards without burdening the budget balance, as expenditure cuts will generate adequate financing for the reform. Although real economic growth more than doubled in 2015 compared to the year before, it was still relatively weak for Austrian standards at 0.9 %. Nevertheless, the predicted 2015 Maastricht deficit of –1.9 % of GDP was not only met but came in significantly below target at –1.2 % of GDP. The structural budget deficit decreased further to 0 % in 2015, clearly outperforming budgetary goals. This highlights the government’s strict budget execution and the prudence of our planning. At 86.2 % of GDP as of end-2015, general government debt in Austria again came in better than the budgeted level (86.5 %) and is set to decline to 84.3 % in 2016. The basis for Austria’s success is its competitive and well diversified economy without major imbalances, high innovative strength, low unemployment, low private sector debt, and conservative, transparent management of government debt. This makes Institutions very confident that Austria will continue its outperformance in the future.