Weekly WIFO Economic Index

WWWI for GDP and its subcomponents

Based on the weekly indicator for GDP (WWWI), Austrian economic output stagnated at the previous year's level in May (calendar weeks 19 to 22, 4 to 31 May 2026). In the first two weeks of June (calendar weeks 23 and 24, 1 to 14 June 2026), it was ¾ percent higher than in the corresponding period of the previous year (April +¾ percent, revised)¹.

The inflation-adjusted volume of cashless transactions as an indicator for the consumption expenditure of private households indicates an increase in the demand for services and a noticeable decline in the demand for goods (retail sales) in May compared to the previous year. Private consumption shrank by ½ percent in May and by ¾ percent in the first half of June compared to the previous year (April –2 percent).

The development of gross fixed capital formation is determined by the economic output (industrial production) and the sentiment in the manufacturing sector according to the WIFO-Konjunkturtest (business cycle survey). Investment is expected to have increased by 1¾ percent in May and by 3 percent in the first half of June compared to the previous year (April +4¼ percent).

Based on the development of industrial production and tourism, as well as the major demand components and the resulting effects on foreign trade, net exports in the broad sense resulted in a negative growth contribution to GDP of 2¼ percentage points in May (April +½ percentage point).

All indicators of freight and passenger transport – truck mileage on Austria's motorways, rail freight transport, as well as air passenger and air freight volumes at Vienna Airport – fell in May compared to the previous year. Air traffic suffered a noticeable blow as a result of the Iran war (cancelled routes and increased kerosene prices). In April, the WIFO-Konjunkturtest also showed a significant deterioration in the already predominantly negative business sentiment in the transport sector; in particular, expectations have not yet recovered. Based on these indicators, the value added in the transport sector (NACE 2008, section H) is estimated to have decreased by 1¾ percent in May and 1 percent in the first half of June compared to the previous year (April +2¼ percent).

The industrial production index (unadjusted) rose by 3.3 percent in March compared to the previous year (revised, preliminary calculation +6 percent) and by 0.3 percent in April according to preliminary calculations. Employment in the goods-producing sector (NACE 2008, sections A to E) continued to fall (May –0.7 percent compared to the previous year). The number of jobseekers in this sector increased again by May after a brief respite at the turn of the year 2025-26. According to the WIFO-Konjunkturtest, the sentiment in manufacturing had tended to improve until the beginning of 2026, but darkened significantly with the start of the Iran war and remained subdued in the following months. WIFO estimates value added in the goods-producing sector to have been ¼ percent lower in May (with two fewer working days than in the previous year) and 1¼ percent higher in early June (with two more working days than in the previous year) compared to the previous year.

The construction production index was nearly 11 percent below the previous year's level in January, due to weather conditions, and almost 5 percent below in February. In March (revised) and April (preliminary calculation), it rose by 1¾ percent each compared to the previous year. The decline in employment in the construction sector continued to weaken until April, but increased again in May. The number of registered unemployed decreased in spring compared to the previous year, after having risen significantly particularly in February. Sentiment among construction companies has returned to a positive balance in recent months. Due to working day effects, value added in construction (NACE 2008, section F) was 3¼ percent below the previous year's level in May and sank slightly slower by –1 percent in the first half of June (April –1¼ percent).

Based on cashless transactions in the restaurant and hotel sector and sentiment indicators from the WIFO-Konjunkturtest, value added in tourism (accommodation and food services, NACE 2008, section I) likely increased by 1½ percent in May compared to the previous year and rose by 3½ percent in the first two weeks of June (April –2¾ percent). In trade (NACE 2008, section G), a decrease in value added of 2½ percent and 1¾ percent is expected in May and early June respectively compared to the previous year (April –2¾ percent).

The current employment situation in the remaining market-related services and sentiment indicators from the WIFO-Konjunkturtest indicate a continued overall positive development of this sector. For the remaining market-related services (NACE 2008, sections J to N), an increase in value added of 1¼ percent in May and 1¾ percent in the first half of June is estimated compared to the previous year (April +1½ percent). In other personal services (NACE 2008, sections R to T), value added likely grew by 4 percent in May and 5 percent in the first two weeks of June based on employment developments and business expectations according to the WIFO-Konjunkturtest (April +2 percent).

¹  The inclusion of newly published and revised monthly and quarterly data, which must be reconciled in the estimation of the WWWI, leads to regular revisions of the WWWI for GDP. The current calculation incorporated the revision of the quarterly GDP for the first to fourth quarter of 2025 and the newly published first quarter of 2026, published by Statistics Austria at the beginning of June, which had partially significant effects on all sub-indicators.

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.