According to Wifo, GDP in the first five weeks of 2021 was 12.5 percent weaker than in the previous year.
Economic research institute Wifo.
The corona crisis still has a firm grip on the economy. The recovery is continuing, but it has slowed since the end of 2020 and has remained low in the first few weeks of 2021, writes the Economic Research Institute (Wifo) on Thursday. In the first five weeks of the year, GDP in Austria was around 12.5 percent lower than in the same period of the previous year, according to Wifo. In the fourth quarter of 2020, it fell by 2.7 percent compared to the previous quarter.
“As in many other countries, economic activity in Austria at the beginning of 2021 was well below the level of the previous year. While industrial production is benefiting from the global economic recovery, economic activity in trade and other services is still severely impaired by the official restrictions”, says Stefan Ederer in the current Wifo economic report.
The increased RWI container throughput index and higher raw material prices, for example, point to a continued recovery, while consumer confidence remains low. The situation on the labor market is also still significantly worse than before the corona pandemic. In February, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate according to the national definition was 9.4 percent.
Relaxation brought improvement
The weakness of the gross domestic product (GDP) at the beginning of the year was also influenced by the lockdown after Christmas. Accordingly, GDP fell significantly below the comparable period of the previous year. After the first easing from February 8th, a noticeable improvement could be seen in the indicator, according to Wifo. Nevertheless, even in the last week of February, economic activity was still 7 percent lower than in the previous year.
For the time being, companies will remain predominantly pessimistic, according to the Wifo business survey for February. The mood is currently depressed, especially among service providers and consumer goods manufacturers. The capital goods sector, on the other hand, is benefiting from the global economic recovery. The construction industry is also optimistic.
