Economic Sentiment Remains Divergent Across Sectors. Results of the WIFO-Konjunkturtest Quarterly Survey of January 2020

For the first time since mid-2018 the results of the WIFO-Konjunkturtest (business cycle survey) show somewhat more pronounced improvement of business sentiment. Nevertheless, in the manufacturing sector the majority of enterprises remain sceptical concerning the economic situation. The WIFO traffic light confirms the improvement of the economic outlook among Austrian companies. Perceived uncertainty is, however, rising again in manufacturing, but the uncertainty indicator is still below the average of the last five years. Capacity utilisation remained high in January but is flattening-off, especially in manufacturing. The overall tendency is confirmed by the information provided by companies on the obstacles to their activities: the factor "lack of demand" is increasingly being mentioned, although this is limited mainly to manufacturing. Economywide the most frequently cited obstacle is still "shortage of labour".