Economic Sentiment Continues to Brighten, Supply Bottlenecks and Labour Shortages Hamper Production

Economic assessments of Austrian companies continued to improve across all sectors in July. Sentiment also brightened in the sectors recently affected directly or indirectly by lockdowns. The WIFO-Konjunkturampel (economic traffic light) continues to show green, confirming the trend of a strong economic upswing. Accordingly, capacity utilisation improved noticeably. For the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, companies cited the "shortage of labour force" as the most important obstacle to their activities. In manufacturing and construction, more companies than ever before reported a "shortage of materials or capacity" as the most important constraint.