Structure and objectives of Austria's foreign direct investment in the four adjacent Central and Eastern European countries Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Slovakia

for ATS 2.6 billion. Hence the intra-firm trade surplus was ATS 2.6 billion. If we look at the structure of
these exports we can see that only two sectors account for two thirds of all intra-firm exports: trade and
chemicals and petroleum. All other industries show an export share of minor importance. The large share
of intra-firm exports in trade is in line with the strong investment activities of this sector. Within the
trading sector FDI and intra-firm exports in particular show a complementary relation. One specific
feature of trade is that these exports consist entirely of final goods. Hence it is not a result of an
improved international division of labour. However the trade surplus of this sector is remarkable and
accounts for nearly two thirds of the overall trade surplus.

Table 5: Intra-firm trade of goods, 1995 (in ATS million)

Exports                      Imports                       Balance

Source: Austrian National Bank

On the imports side we can see that nearly all intra-firm imports have been carried out by the
manufacturing sector (93.6%). Chemicals and petroleum are responsible for the largest part of these
imports (34.7%). Furthermore there are several industries which show considerable intra-firm imports:
Wood processing and in particular the ‘core’ industrial sector (metal products, mechanical products and
electrical and electronic equipment) display both intra-firm trade deficits. Out of these sectors only wood

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