VIENNA, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- A drop in economic activity with Russia due to European Union sanctions has led to the loss of 7,000 Austrian jobs and 550 million euro (583 million U.S. dollars) drop in economic activity in 2015, Der Standard reported Thursday citing a study.

The study, conducted by the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) on behalf of the ministry of economy, said that the European Union-wide job losses numbered nearly 400,000, and led to a loss in economic activity of some 17.6 billion euros (18.6 billion U.S. dollars).

It noted however that even without the sanctions the situation would have been serious.

A weakened Russian economy on the back of a fall in oil prices as well as a drop in the ruble would still have resulted in a bad situation regardless of the sanctions.

It was claimed that in Austria 36 percent of the negative impact on economic activity with Russia could be attributed to the sanctions.