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Compared to the previous quarter, gross domestic product (GDP) minus in real terms, that is, adjusted for business days and seasonal, was 12.1 percent. “This is the steepest decline since World War II,” Austrian Statistics Director General Tobias Thomas said on Monday.
Statistics Austria announced the corresponding preliminary calculations on Monday. Consequently, the drop was stronger than recently expected by economic researchers. Wifo was down 12.5 percent at the end of August. Austria is not alone with the sharp drop in GDP in the second quarter. World economic output plummeted in the second quarter. In most European countries, the minus sign was two digits long.
Even before the closing quarter, the national economy was in reverse. In the first quarter of 2020, the decrease was 3.4 percent. Exit restrictions to contain the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in Austria were imposed in mid-March, and export-oriented companies were already experiencing the outbreak in China in January and February.
Furthermore, the economy has cooled down since before the pandemic. In 2019, the Austrian economy grew by 1.4 percent in real terms, as shown by the preliminary result that has now been published. In 2018, GDP growth was 2.6 percent. For the crisis year of this year 2020, Wifo and IHS expect a drop of around 7 percent and next year’s growth of between 4 and 6 percent.
Service sector badly affected
As can be seen from Statistics Austria’s calculations, measures to contain COVID-19 in Austria in the three months after the lockdown have left clear traces, especially in much of the service sector. The largest real decrease of 61.1 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year and 65.2 percent compared to the previous quarter was attributable to the accommodation and gastronomy area, followed by the entertainment and culture area, which was 35, 3 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year and 27.0 percent compared to the previous quarter. it crashed.
Video: Although it was very crowded in many places on the lakes this year, many guests were left out. Foreign visitors in particular are absent. City tourism in Vienna was particularly affected (in numbers).
Other areas such as housing, healthcare or public administration, as well as the information and communication industries, were hardly affected. Private consumption showed increases in rents, electricity, heating, as well as food and beverages. However, overall, it was 16.1 percent below the second quarter of 2019. Investments also fell significantly.
The industry has been affected by the effects of the pandemic in a previously weak environment. As in foreign trade, the decline began at the end of 2019 and reached a preliminary low in the second quarter of 2020 with a decrease of 15.6 percent compared to the previous quarter and 18.4 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
The economic recession was also reflected in the employment figures. The regulation of reduced hours contributed to the decrease in total hours worked (-12.9% compared to the previous quarter, -16.6% compared to the same quarter of the previous year), but at the same time kept the decrease within limits of employment (-4.5% compared to the previous quarter, -4.9% compared to the same quarter of the previous year).
The crisis was also felt in the pocket and the account of the Austrians. Compensation for employees fell 7.2 percent (nominally, adjusted) in the second quarter of 2020 compared to the first quarter of 2020 and 6.2 percent compared to the second quarter of 2019, according to the figures. from Statistics Austria.
