Statistics not confirmed Austria’s losses due to sanctions against Russia – Ukraine’s ambassador to Austria

Pro-Russian politicians in Austria deliberately exaggerate negative impact of sanctions against Russia on the Austrian economy, and the statistics did not confirm this fact.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Austria Oleksandr Scherba said this during a skype conference on Wednesday answering the question whether Austria will continue to support sanctions against Russia, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

"I think yes [it will support sanctions]. The statistics did not confirm negative impact of sanctions on the Austrian economy. Yesterday the new statistics was published regarding the rate of growth of the national economy, and the GDP broke a record for the last five years. The growth was 1.5% in 2016, which is quite a lot," he said.

According to him, the myth about negative impact of sanctions against Russia on the economy of Austria is actively spread by primarily pro-Russian politicians, in particular, the Freedom Party of Austria.

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