FIW Annual Report

The COVID-19 pandemic had a massive impact on international economic activities and thus on Austria's foreign trade. This October update to the February 2020 FIW Annual Report presents a new short-term forecast for the development of Austria' foreign trade in 2020 and 2021. Austrian exports of goods and services will be 12.4 percent lower in real terms in 2020 compared to 2019. Total imports will contract by 10.6 percent over the same observation period (also in real terms). Since exports are more affected by the COVID-19 pandemic than imports, the contribution of net exports to overall economic growth will thus be a relatively significant negative 1.3 percentage points in 2020.