Heading into Recession. Business Cycle Report of December 2008

The real economy is now feeling the full impact of the global financial crisis. The economic downturn, which started out with exports, is now spreading to all the other demand components. Real GDP barely grew quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter of 2008 (+0.1 percent). In year-on-year terms, economic growth decelerated noticeably from 2.9 percent in the first quarter to 1.2 percent in the third quarter. But unlike Germany's economy, the Austrian economy was not yet in recession in autumn.