Weekly WIFO Economic Index

WWWI for GDP and its subcomponents

Based on the weekly indicator for GDP (WWWI), Austrian economic output was ½ percent higher in August (calendar weeks 32 to 35) and ¾ percent higher in both September (calendar weeks 36 to 39) and the first three weeks of October (calendar weeks 40 to 42) than in the same period of the previous year (July +1 percent, revised)¹.

The inflation-adjusted volume of cashless transactions, used as an indicator of private household consumption expenditure, points to a (slight) year-on-year decline in demand for goods (retail sales) in August and a (likewise slight) increase in demand for services. For September, the data suggest that both demand for goods (retail sales) and demand for services are expected to have increased, with the latter likely to have grown somewhat more strongly. Private consumption expanded by ¼ percent year on year in August and by 1½ percent in September. The first three weeks of October point to a decline of ¼ percent (July +2 percent, revised).

The development of gross fixed capital formation is determined by economic output (industrial production) and sentiment in the production sector according to the WIFO-Konjunkturtest (business cycle survey). Investment is estimated to have increased by 2½ percent year on year in August and by 3 percent in both September and the three weeks of October (July +3 percent, revised).

The development of industrial production and tourism, as well as of the main demand components and the resulting effects on foreign trade, yields a positive contribution of net exports in the broad sense to GDP growth in August and a negative contribution in September, each amounting to ½ percentage point.

Truck mileage on Austria's motorways and air freight volumes at Vienna Airport increased year on year in August and September. Rail freight transport has been below the previous year's level since November 2025, and passenger volumes at Vienna Airport since the beginning of 2026. Although sentiment among companies in the transport sector according to the WIFO-Konjunkturtest has recovered slightly since the slump at the beginning of the Iran war, it remains subdued. Based on these indicators, value added in transport (NACE 2008, section H) is estimated to have increased by 2 percent year on year in August, declined by 1 percent in September and grown by 2 percent in the first three weeks of October (July +1½ percent, revised).

The industrial production index (unadjusted) rose by 0.9 percent year on year in August (preliminary calculation), with one more working day than in the previous year. Dependent employment in the goods-producing sector (NACE 2008, sections A to E) continued to shrink (August −0.5 percent and September −1.3 percent year on year). The number of job seekers in this sector rose again after a brief easing around the turn of the year 2025-26 (August +3.3 percent, September +2.4 percent). According to the WIFO-Konjunkturtest, sentiment among manufacturers had tended to improve until the beginning of 2026, but deteriorated markedly with the outbreak of the Iran war. Expectations in particular remained pessimistic in the following months, but have improved in recent months. According to the WWWI estimate, economic output in the goods-producing sector rose by 1¾ percent year on year in August and by 2 percent in both September and early October (July +1 percent, revised).

In August, the construction production index was 3.3 percent above the previous year's level, with one more working day than in the previous year. Employment in construction fell by 0.5 percent in August and by 1.2 percent in September. The number of registered unemployed persons declined in recent months, rose by 0.3 percent in August and fell again by 1.6 percent in September. Sentiment among construction companies has turned back to a positive balance in recent months. The year-on-year decline in value added in construction (NACE 2008, section F) amounted to 1¾ percent in August, 2½ percent in September and 1½ percent in the first three weeks of October (July −1¾ percent, revised).

Based on cashless transactions in restaurants and hotels and sentiment indicators from the WIFO-Konjunkturtest, value added in tourism (accommodation and food service activities, NACE 2008, section I) is estimated to have fallen by 2½ percent year on year in August. In September it rose by 4 percent and in the first three weeks of October by 5¾ percent (July +3 percent, revised). In trade (NACE 2008, section G), value added decreased by 1½ percent year on year in August, based on (preliminary) retail sales. For September, based on cashless payments, the year-on-year increase in value added is estimated at 1¼ percent (July +2.2 percent, revised).

The current employment situation in business-related market services and sentiment indicators from the WIFO-Konjunkturtest point to a continued overall positive development in this sector. For the remaining market-related services (NACE 2008, sections J to N), the year-on-year growth in value added in August is estimated at 2 percent. In September and in the first three weeks of October, the increase amounted to 1½ percent in each case (July +1 percent, revised). In other personal services (NACE 2008, sections R to T), value added is estimated to have grown by 4½ percent in August, ½ percent in September and ¾ percent in the first three weeks of October, based on employment developments and business expectations according to the WIFO-Konjunkturtest (July +2¾ percent, revised).

¹  The inclusion of newly published and revised monthly data, which must be reconciled when estimating the WWWI, led to a revision of the WWWI for GDP. Notable production-side WWWI revisions occurred in the areas of goods production (NACE 2008, sections A to E), trade (section G), transport (section H), accommodation and food service activities (section I) and remaining market-related services (sections J to N).

The Weekly WIFO Economic Index (WWWI) is a measure of the real economic activity of the Austrian economy on a weekly and monthly frequency. It is based on weekly, monthly and quarterly time series to estimate weekly and monthly indicators for real GDP and 18 GDP sub-aggregates (use side 8, production side 10) of the Quarterly National Accounts.

With the release for June 2022, the econometric models for the historical decompositions and for nowcasting have been converted to seasonally unadjusted time series. In addition, year-on-year growth rates are now used to estimate the models.

The WWWI estimates are (currently) updated monthly and published on the WIFO website.