Industrial production in Austria

The Industrial Production Index measures the volume of output of Austrian industry (manufacturing, mining and energy supply). Published by Statistics Austria, it is one of the most closely watched cyclical indicators because it anticipates the economic cycle.

It is expressed as an index against a base year (index 100), aggregating the sub-indices of industrial branches weighted by their share of value added. The data are usually calendar- and seasonally-adjusted and reported as annual (YoY) and monthly (MoM) rates of change.

It is tightly linked to the cycle and to GDP, and closely related to business-climate indicators (PMI, ISM), which tend to lead it. In an open, export-oriented economy like Austria's, a weak print signals cooling; as part of the euro area, it feeds the activity read the ECB monitors.

It is subject to revisions: releasing one month's figure usually revises the previous one. It is volatile and sensitive to the number of working days and to one-off factors (large plants, energy).