Large Manufacturing Firms Plan to Increase their Investments in 2015. Results of the WIFO Spring 2015 Investment Survey

Manufacturing investment at current prices is expected to increase by 18 percent in 2015 compared with the previous year (WIFO Investment Survey of spring 2015). The increase is assumed to vary across firm size with a stronger growth in large firms (+21 percent). In contrast, investment of SMEs is almost unchanged (+2 percent). In particular, automotive companies intend to boost their investments, while the construction industries foresee a contraction of 18 percent in 2015. Overall, for the Austrian economy, WIFO projects a stagnation in investment of 0.5 percent.