wiiw is one of the principle centres for research on Central, East and Southeast Europe with more than 40 years of experience. Over the years, we have broadened our expertise, increasing our regional coverage – to European integration, the countries of Wider Europe and selected issues of the global economy – and expanding the research areas we work on. At present, our thematic work is focused on macroeconomic developments and structural change, international economics, labour markets and social issues, as well as on selected issues related to sectoral and regional economic developments. wiiw is an independent, non-profit institution. Our staff serves the public and clients alike, delivering economic analyses and research, forecasts, statistical data and policy advice. The institute is uniquely positioned thanks to its wide range of statistical databases and expertise in dealing with complex or ‘difficult’ datasets and data collection. Our analyses are based on primary sources and data obtained directly from the countries we cover. Our databases are updated in a timely manner and cross-checked with international databases. Our experience enables us to make educated judgements in solving issues such as breaks in time series and cross-country comparability problems, ultimately leading to consistent, comparable and reliable series of indicators. The high quality of our data enables us to perform long-term analyses that may also serve as a basis for assessments of future trends.