Economic Expectations Lose Momentum

The index of current assessments of the overall economic situation rose by 9.9 points to –12.7 points in August (excluding seasonal fluctuations) and has shown a significant improvement since May. The situation indices are improving across the sectors. In the service sectors, the index rose by 13.5 points to –12.4 points but remains in negative territory. In the construction industry, the situation index rose by 6.6 points, and at 10.7 points is clearly in positive territory. In the manufacturing sector, the situation index increased by 5.2 points, but is still clearly in negative territory at –20.4 points.

The expectations of Austrian companies across all sectors are somewhat weaker than in the previous month. The index of corporate expectations lost 1.2 points in August and remains in the sceptical range at –8.7 points. In the construction industry alone, the expectations index is above the zero line that separates negative from positive expectations: after a slight decrease of 0.1 points, the index is now at 2.4 points. In the service sectors, the expectations index loses 1.7 points and is below average at –8.0 points. The expectations index for the manufacturing sector also lost some of its momentum (–0.7 points), remaining negative at –13.2 points. The majority of companies expects a rather muted normalisation in the coming months.

Details on all sectors in the current economic survey can be found here.