Weekly WIFO Economic Index

Comparing the impact of relaxations after the previous hard lockdowns, the estimated GDP improvement in the calendar week 6 lies between the increase after the first lockdown (+2½ percentage points) and that after the second lockdown (+5¾ percentage points). The latter received a strong boost from the Christmas season in particular. The explanatory variables for WWWI show a homogeneous picture at the current edge. Credit card sales and mobility rose sharply on a weekly comparison, which is likely to be attributable to the increase in retail activity. Indicators reflecting industrial production are also sending positive signals, with both electricity consumption and nitrogen dioxide emissions rising. Signals from the labour market are also somewhat more favourable: on the one hand, unemployment fell on a weekly basis and, on the other, the number of job vacancies also increased. Mixed signals come only from freight transport: truck mileage increased significantly, air freight stagnated and freight transport by rail declined sharply. However, the latter is likely to be an idiosyncratic element and attributable to the interruption of rail traffic due to an accident on the Westbahn line near Hallwang-Elixhausen.

Details on the WIFO Weekly Economic Index can be found here (xlsx).

The Weekly WIFO Economic Index (WWWI) is a measure of the real economic activity of the Austrian economy on a weekly basis. It is based on weekly, monthly and quarterly indicators.

The index is scaled to the values of the rates of change in GDP compared with the corresponding quarter in the previous year: Therefore, a value of 2 percent in a given week means that an average growth of 2 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year would be expected if the conditions of that week continue for a whole quarter.