The government’s plan to establish a database for monitoring food prices along the supply chain starting next year is considered “very ambitious” by Statistics Austria. “We do not have the data,” explained the new Director General for Professional Statistics, Manuela Lenk, in an interview with APA. She said the agency is open to new responsibilities but has not yet been directly contacted by the government and will carefully examine how such a project could be implemented.
The database, announced at the government retreat this week and assigned to Statistics Austria by cabinet decision, is intended to identify unjustified pricing practices along the value chain and thus counter inflation in the food sector.
In general, Austria is now in a “really good” position regarding data availability, according to the head of professional statistics. The Austrian Micro Data Center (AMDC) research database is receiving significant international attention. She views positively the coalition’s commitment to ensure that, after the slow release of data by ministries, all federally mandated register data—except those related to national security—will be fully linked to the AMDC by July 1, 2026.
Government on track with EU Data Governance Act
Lenk also considers the government to be on track in implementing the EU Data Governance Act (DGA). Due to delays, the European Commission had launched infringement proceedings against Austria last year. The directive was implemented with the Data Access Act adopted in July. Statistics Austria plays a key role in its implementation. The focus is no longer only on open data but on making the data landscape more visible and enabling the exchange of protected data, Lenk noted.
She does not regret that the Federal Chancellery will take on the role of central information hub—unlike in Germany or Switzerland, where the statistics offices hold this role. To get ministries to report their data as quickly as possible, the Federal Chancellery could indeed act as a “driving force,” she believes.
Budget challenges remain
Despite the increase of the base allocation by €13 million to €69.4 million for next year, Lenk still sees the budget situation of Statistics Austria as a challenge. Until now, Statistics Austria was financed by the flat-rate allocation plus an additional shareholder subsidy. “From 2026 onwards, there will only be the flat-rate allocation, which—when looking at the overall financing—has in fact been reduced by €3 million and will not be adjusted until 2029,” Lenk explained.
Lenk, who most recently served as Deputy Director of the Federal Statistical Office in Switzerland, returned on September 1 as Director General for Professional Statistics at Statistics Austria, where she began her career in 2004. She does not wish to link her departure in 2019 as then head of the register census to the political turbulence caused by attempts at influence by the turquoise-blue government at the time. Due to her personal background—having left school early, becoming head of payroll at Ernst & Young, later completing the university entrance exam as a mother of young children, and then studying sociology—she said she never had the chance to work abroad. Therefore, she accepted the offer from Switzerland when the opportunity arose.
