Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Austria’s economy contracted in the fourth quarter after flagging global demand for goods and services hurt the Alpine republic’s exporters, the state- supported Wifo research institute said today.

Fourth-quarter gross domestic product, the value of goods and services, fell 0.1 percentage point from the preceding three months, Wifo said in an e-mail. Third-quarter growth was lowered to 0.2 percentage points from the 0.3 percentage point expansion that Wifo reported in December.

“The deterioration of the international economy shrank domestic exports again,” Wifo said. Exports contracted 0.5 percentage points in the last three months of 2011 after shrinking 0.2 percentage points in third quarter.

Wifo estimates that full-year GDP grew 3.1 percentage points in 2011.

--Editor: Zoe Schneeweiss

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Tirone in Vienna at jtirone@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Zoe Schneeweiss at zschneeweiss@bloomberg.net