Revision of National Income Accounts
In the late fall of 1993 the Austrian Statistical Central Office published the revised National Income Accounts for the years from 1988 to 1992. In a second step, the Austrian Institute of Economic Research adapted its quarterly estimates concerning the development during each year to the yearly benchmarks. According to the revised accounts, real GDP growth in 1990 reached 4.2 percent, in 1991 2.7 percent, 0.4 and 0.3 percentage points lower than the previous estimates. For the year 1992, the rate of 1.6 percent was 0.1 percentage points higher than the preliminary estimate. From 1987 to 1992 real GDP growth was 17.6 percent, compared to 18.1 percent according to the old calculations. Growth in the goods producing sector, construction, and wholesale and retail trade was revised downwards, while growth in the other service sectors was revised upwards. This revision does not affect the interpretation of the cyclical development of the economy. The upswing that set in at the beginning of 1988 slowed down markedly at the turn of 1990/91 (as measured by the year-on-year growth rates). Growth in real GDP finally turned negative during the first three quarters of 1993. The economic slump was particularly deep in the goods producing sector. There, the upswing leveled off during the first three quarters of 1992 and negative rates of change were recorded starting with the fourth quarter of 1992. The construction and wholesale and retail sectors posted strong gains until the summer of 1992, but suffered significant losses after that. The demand for other services, for transport, communications, and finance, insurance and real estate, in particular, remained stable. For several years now the communications sector has been expanding vigorously and net production in the banking sector has recovered from the setback of 1992.