Vienna (awp / dpa) – Austria suffered a historic 10.7% decline in its gross domestic product from April to June compared to the previous quarter, due to the impact of the new coronavirus and containment measures, according to a first estimate Thursday from the benchmark Wifo institute.
“A decline of this magnitude is unique in the calculations of economic activity since World War II,” Wifo said in a statement. Over one year, the plunge in GDP in the second quarter reached 12.8%.
This is the second consecutive quarter of GDP contraction in Austria after the 2.4% decline recorded from January to March. Austria had not experienced a contraction since 2012 and a recession since 2009.
Between April and June, when economic activity was severely slowed down by health restrictions, the trade, motor vehicle maintenance, transport, accommodation and catering sectors were the most affected. Down by 27.8%, the drop in added value of these activities contributes nearly half to the poor GDP figure.
Over one year, household consumption fell by 15.9%, exports by 18.1% and imports by 15.3%.
The Wifo Institute recently estimated that the Austrian economy is expected to experience a historic recession of around 7% of GDP in 2020 before rebounding in 2021 with GDP growth between 4.3% and 5.8%.
afp / lk
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