The winter of 2021/22 is not going well for the domestic economy due to the lockdown and other measures to contain the corona pandemic. Bank Austria’s economic indicator fell significantly in December. The service sector in particular is being hit hard by the Corona measures.
Other sectors, such as construction and industry, are hardly affected by the measures, but are suffering from delivery problems. But there is a chance of improvement, as the Bank Austria experts said yesterday, Friday.
“The weakening of the pandemic in the spring and the easing of the delivery problems from the middle of the year are likely to increase the speed of recovery again,” says the economic indicator. “As in earlier lockdown phases or periods with tightened pandemic measures, the different sectors of the Austrian economy are currently drifting apart,” says chief economist Stefan Bruckbauer: Over the summer, a uniform, broad-based recovery could still be observed.
The mood in construction is now at the third highest level since data collection began. Thanks to full order books, the increased costs could be passed on to customers. The delivery problems would have subsided somewhat. The mood in industry is also good.
In contrast, some service industries, parts of trade and tourism would suffer massive business losses accompanied by a collapse in consumer sentiment. Consumers’ desire to buy is suffering from the Corona measures.
“The measures to prevent the spread of the omicron virus variant will have a noticeable impact in the next few weeks, but will probably dampen economic development less than in the previous year,” says economist Walter Pudschedl: There are no signs of a recession in winter.
Source: Nachrichten
