Heterogeneous Development of Economic Assessments

The results of the WIFO-Konjunkturtest (business cycle survey) in April point to an improvement in the total economy but reveal an uneven development of economic assessments in the individual sectors. Overall, the business activity indices point upward, with the trend being driven primarily by services and retail trade. In contrast, capacity utilisation slightly increased in all sectors. Similar to previous results, the "shortage of labour force" was the main obstacle to business activity in the Austrian economy in the last quarter, although the "insufficient demand" continued to gain in importance. Sales price expectations have been showing a downward trend for several months.