Recent months have seen a further improvement in business and consumer sentiment. Companies intend to invest considerably more than last year. Real retail sales also picked up at the turn of the year. The modest rise in prices contributed to a strengthening of purchasing power at the beginning...

The real economy is now feeling the full impact of the global financial crisis. The economic downturn, which started out with exports, is now spreading to all the other demand components. Real GDP barely grew quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter of 2008 (+0.1 percent). In year-on-year terms,...

For several months, business surveys have indicated a gradual but steady improvement of firms' expectations. Opinions on the current economic situation are also somewhat more upbeat in manufacturing and substantially more so in the construction industry. A turnaround on the labour market,...

No signs are currently visible of a cyclical recovery in Europe. Survey results for Austria as for the whole EU suggest business conditions being fragile, with no upward tendency.

In the last couple of months, business surveys in the euro area point to a slowdown of the recovery in the manufacturing sector. The boom in exports has not, or only hesitantly been transmitted to domestic demand. In Austria, exports and manufacturing output were still relatively lively early...

The dampening impact of the international cyclical slowdown on Austrian exports and business investment is being exacerbated by a decline in construction activity: in April and May, the sector's gross output fell by an inflation-adjusted 8 percent below the year-earlier level. Domestic...

Activity in the export-oriented sectors is expanding strongly. Firms' optimism on the short-term outlook is unabated, and the odds are for a revival of investment. However, the strength of the euro and high energy prices are weighing on the cyclical recovery. The level of unemployment remains high.

In Austria, seasonally and working day adjusted GDP grew only by a mere 0.4 percent in real terms quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter of 2008 (+2 percent in year-on-year terms), according to WIFO's flash estimate. This marks the end of the economic upswing. The reversal of the economic...

Real GDP contracted at a seasonally and working day adjusted quarterly rate of 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008. The economic downturn has taken a firm grip of the export-oriented manufacturing sector, with production, capacity utilisation and incoming orders markedly below the levels...

The results of the WIFO business cycle survey show that sentiment in the manufacturing and construction sectors has brightened markedly in the first quarter of 2006. Production output and export figures are displaying a modest up-ward tendency. But there is no indication yet of a rebound in...