Significant Recovery of Investment in Manufacturing from the COVID-19 Crisis

After the slump during the COVID-19 crisis, domestic investment activity recovers strongly in 2021. An estimate based on firm-level data from the WIFO Investment Survey shows an increase of real investment in 2021 in the manufacturing sector by 22.0 percent. Large companies in particular plan to expand their investments, while small and medium-sized companies will increase their investment plans to a lesser extent. Especially manufacturers of investment goods and durable and non-durable consumer goods will increase their investments. Investments in the manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers are only slightly increasing. For Austria's total economy, WIFO expects gross fixed capital formation to increase by 6.9 percent in real terms in 2021.