The Eurozone is currently enjoying a boost to growth from lower oil prices and the European Central Bank’s recently announced quantitative easing program. However, the boost will only help Austria’s economy to a lesser extent. [Austria ETF Finds its Way]
Austria has placed itself as a focal point in the banking industry for emerging Central and Eastern European economies. However, the financial crisis left the Austrian banking system vulnerable to the massive movements of foreign credit and foreign currency-denominated loans.
“In all fairness, the fund is merely tracking the MSCI index, which it does rather well. As an individual EU member state economy Austria does well domestically: employment, social services, income and wealth distribution. Also, as a contributing EU and Eurozone member state, it does play a positive, albeit small part. Unfortunately, though, as a single country focused investment it does not have the strength, at least not yet, to generate significant dividend growth or capital appreciation, mainly because of its weak financial sector,” according to the Seeking Alpha article.
iShares MSCI Austria Capped ETF
