Vienna - Austria's economy is going to recover by the end of the year and will grow by 1 per cent in 2010, economists forecast Friday, making an upward revision in their predictions. After gross domestic product fell by 4.6 per cent in the first half of the year, compared to the same period in 2008, it would show slight growth in the second half, experts at the Wifo and IHS institutes said.
In the global economy, "indicators for business sentiment and received orders point to a noticeable pickup of economic performance in the second half of 2009," IHS said.
For that reason, the institutes raised their 2010 forecasts from 0.5 per cent growth to 1 per cent.
However, for the current year, the experts expect gross domestic product to decline by between 3.4 and 3.8 per cent, slightly better than the EU-wide estimate of minus 4 per cent issued by the European Commission.
Exports are set to contract by 16 per cent this year, IHS's experts said.
