An EU economic forecast by says growth in Austria is looking up. The European Commission attributes this partly to corona vaccination progress, but also to an easing of pandemic measures since the spring of 2021. (In the 36 hours since this prognosis was published, the Austrian government has announced that a lockdown for the unvaccinated is on its way, almost certainly in Upper Austria and Salzburg, but possibly across the country – details are expected by Sunday, November 14.)
For 2021, the EU authority expected to record a GDP (gross domestic product) increase of 4.4 percent, after a decrease of 6.7 percent in 2020, according to their fall forecast, which was published on Thursday. In their summer outlook, the Commission had been expecting an increase of 3.8 percent for this year.
Despite this, Austrian growth is expected to remain below the EU average. In the Eurozone and in the whole EU, the EU Commission is expecting five percent in average GDP growth.
The upswing is expected to continue into 2022, where the EU Commission gave a forecast of 4.9 percent growth in Austria. This was 0.4 percent more than expected in the summer. With a 4.9 percent growth outlook, Austria is slightly higher than the average EU and
Eurozone 2022 expectation of 4.3 percent.
These outlooks depended highly on two factors, said the EU Commission in a statement on the autumn forecast. It referred to the developments in the coronavirus pandemic, as well as to the speed with which supply adjusted to increasing demand after the
“reopening” of the economy. With skyrocketing COVID-19 cases in Austria and other EU countries, it remains to be seen whether sunny economic predictions hold through the long winter ahead.
