Austrian Economy Shrinks 0.4% for Fourth Straight Contraction
Austria’s economy contracted for a fourth consecutive quarter after investments and exports tumbled because of the world financial crisis.
Second-quarter gross domestic product, the value of all services and goods, contracted 0.4 percent from the first quarter, when it fell 2.7 percent, the Vienna-based Wifo economic research institute said today. Compared with a year earlier, the economy weakened 4.4 percent.
“The Austrian economy was badly hit by the economic downturn,” Wifo said in an e-mail fast cash loans. A 0.4 percent increase in consumption, helped by government incentives to buy new autos, helped slow the economic deceleration, according to the institute.
Exports decreased 1.1 percent in the second quarter, the fifth consecutive decline, the report said. Imports fell 0.2 percent, the sixth straight quarterly drop.