Expectations Regarding Business Activity, Impairments and Liquidity in the Fourth COVID-19 Wave

Despite a clear economic upswing, the COVID-19 pandemic brought challenges for Austrian companies in the past six months: about 73 percent of the companies surveyed reported impairment of business activities in the past six months. About one third of the companies each reported the loss of orders, supply bottlenecks and difficulties in finding employees. Liquidity assessments have improved compared to February 2021. For the autumn, most companies expect a significant tightening of regulatory measures, but only a few companies (around 17 percent) expect severe impairments due to the COVID-19 pandemic in autumn 2021. Most companies expect slight restrictions on business activity (around 50 percent).