The UniCredit Bank Austria Business Indicator provides an overview of the current economic situation in Austria.
Economic recovery is in progress, but the pace of improvements will remain slow in H2 2020
- Austria's economy began its post-shutdown recovery even before the middle of the year
- This is backed up by the second consecutive increase in the UniCredit Bank Austria Business Indicator, to minus 0.9 points in June
- Despite this momentum, a double-digit slump in Q2 indicates the strongest recession in the history of the Second Republic, with a decline of almost 10 percent in H1
- The outlook in the construction sector is once again optimistic and consumer confidence is on the up
- In contrast, sentiment among industrial businesses is improving only slowly, and in the service sector is only above the historical low
- The pace of recovery in H2 2020 and in 2021 will be characterised by modest consumptiopn and investment momentum and muted demand from abroad
- The Austrian economy opened up again relatively early, leading to a slightly lower than expected decline in GDP for 2020 of 8 percent; but economic growth for 2021 is set to be rather more moderate at 7 percent
- Labour market improvements set to falter in the autumn
- Low oil price and muted demand suppressing inflation in 2020
as of 15 July 2020.