Statistics Austria: “Particularly exposed through accommodation / gastronomy”
Austria's economy fell a little less sharply in the 2020 corona year than assumed recently. According to preliminary calculations by Statistics Austria, the gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 6.6 percent in real terms – at the beginning of February, Wifo had assumed minus 7.4 percent. In the fourth quarter, too, the decline of 5.7 percent within a year was less than previously feared, said Statistics Austria Director General Tobias Thomas on Friday.
The decline in economic output of 6.6 percent in 2020 as a whole was the most striking decline since 1945. According to Thomas, GDP fell 2.8 percentage points more than in the year of the economic and financial crisis in 2009.
According to the head of Statistics Austria, the fact that Austria's economy was hit quite hard in a European comparison is due in particular to the sharp decline in economic output, especially in the areas of accommodation and gastronomy. “Their share in the Austrian added value is more than three times heavier than, for example, in Germany”, says Thomas.
In the fourth quarter, real GDP, seasonally and working day adjusted, was 2.7 percent below the previous quarter. The sharpest quarter-on-quarter decline was last year in the third quarter with minus 11.8 percent, followed by the second with minus 10.7 percent. Year-on-year, GDP fell the most in the second quarter with minus 13.5 percent during the first lockdown.
