How the food industry is affected in national and international comparison

he COVID 19 shock led to a significant supply-side slump in economic activity in spring 2020. This means that production was curtailed because, on the one hand, there was a shortage of labor or companies anticipated a drop in demand and did not produce in stock. The second wave of the COVID pandemic also
led to further lockdowns and curtailments. To date, little to nothing is known about the specific COVID-19 impact on the Austrian food industry. The core of this working paper is to establish the extent to which the Austrian food industry has been affected in a European comparison and in comparison with Austrian manufacturing. To this end, the paper draws on monthly data from short-term statistics and business surveys, which reflect the mood in Austrian industry with only a slight time lag. Methodologically, it is confirmed that the indicators of the business surveys (WIFO business cycle test) are a suitable tool to track the economic situation of the Austrian food industry in a timely and reliable manner.