VIENNA, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The Austrian economy is to grow more slowly over the next few years on the back of a dampened global economy, the National Bank of Austria (OeNB) said in its latest prognosis on Friday.
For the current year, the central bank anticipates GDP growth of 1.5 percent, down significantly from the 2.7-percent growth seen in both 2017 and 2018.
It said Austria's export industry will decline noticeably, though a worse overall outcome will be mitigated by domestic demand that will continue its positive trend.
Other international dampening factors still remain, such as an escalation in the trade dispute between China and the U.S., uncertainty surrounding Brexit, and also difficulties facing German industry, particularly in the automobile sector.
The OeNB said it believes the subsequent years of 2020 and 2021 will see a slight improvement, with growth inching up to 1.6 percent for both years.
This, however, is down from an earlier OeNB prognosis in December, where growth of 1.9 percent and 1.7 percent was forecast for each of these years respectively.
