Vienna, Dec 2 (IANS): Following a 1.4 per cent contraction in the second quarter of 2023, Austria's gross domestic product (GDP) declined by 1.8 per cent in real terms in the third quarter of this year, indicating the country's economy has slipped into recession, the national statistical agency said.

A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction.

"Following the economic boom until mid-2022, the economic slowdown has continued with slightly negative growth rates since the second quarter of 2023," Director General of Statistics Austria Tobias Thomas said in a statement on Friday.

Thomas added that Austria's recession is caused primarily by the declining economic output of industry and trade, which fell by 4.2 per cent and 7.6 per cent, respectively, year on year in Q3 of 2023, reports Xinhua news agency.

On a positive note, Austria, which has been plagued by high inflation since early 2022, has seen its annual inflation rate drop from 11.2 per cent in January to 5.4 per cent in October, mainly thanks to falling energy prices, according to Statistics Austria.

The country also saw robust growth in its tourism sector this year, as it registered a record-high 80.89 million overnight stays in the past summer season (May to October).

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in its latest economic outlook report published on Wednesday, projected the Austrian economy to shrink by 0.4 per cent this year.

OECD predicted Austria's economic growth to slowly pick up to 0.6 per cent in 2024 and 1.5 per cent in 2025.