Vienna, May 30 (IANS): The Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) has raised the country's inflation forecast for this year from 5.8 perc ent to 6.5 per cent due to the continued energy crunch.
Gabriel Felbermayr, director of the WIFO, told local broadcaster ORF on Sunday that Austria's domestic economy "is not prepared for such high inflation rates", reports Xinhua news agency
According to data published by Statistics Austria earlier this month, the country's year-on-year inflation rate reached 7.2 per cent in April, the highest figure recorded since October 1981.
The rising inflation was mainly driven by surging fuel and energy product prices and food prices.
Felbermayr suggested increasing social benefits, such as minimum income and family allowance, to cope with the rising inflation, ORF reported.